Aero Secrets for Cycling in Triathlon: Get Faster Without Working Harder Ep 100

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I'll see you there. All right, welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. We are welcoming Coach Jason today because I thought it would be kind of a cool experience to hear about how Jason made his way down a very specific rabbit hole to get faster on the bike, specifically for triathlon, because Who doesn't want to get faster, right? So welcome, Jason, and I'm just going to let you kick it off. Tell us about this whole process and maybe even when it was, and even maybe some of the nitty-gritty details of how you made this process into getting more aero, into getting faster on the bike, and then we'll have some tips for some folks.

So yeah, thank you. Thank you, Chris. Good to be here. For me, it kind of started back early 2019. I was, you know, I started participating in triathlons really around the 2012 time and had really worked to improve my strength on the bike and just overall in triathlons. And early in 2012 or 2019, my power numbers were very good. So I was putting out a lot of watts in fact, personal best watts for races that I was participating in. But I was noticing that when I would go after the race and look at Strava, I am a data nerd, so I would go look at Strava and look at the people who finished around my times, my bike times, my bike splits, and I noticed that they were putting out less power than I was. So, I was putting out more power, but going, you know, the same speed as people putting out less power. So, to me it said, okay, you know, the engine's good, but there's something going on here that I need to figure out. And as I did a little research online and those kind of things, it came to me that I probably had an issue with my aerodynamics. Maybe I wasn't in the right position. Maybe what I was doing on the bike was incorrect. So that really began my journey of, of that year of 2019, really diving into aerodynamics, what I was doing and how I could do it differently. And so just to kind of summarize what— where I started and where I finished, At the beginning of 2019, you know, I was, I'm once again a data nerd. My coefficient of drag, CDA, was like around 0.3. And by the end, it was 0.24 at Augusta at the 70.3. And what that really means is I was 60 watts more efficient by the end of the year than the beginning of the year. Even though I was probably the same level of fitness. So in other words, I was able to save 60 watts and just through aerodynamic improvements.

That's really cool. So basically you were able to go through space. Like, that's right, in a smaller space, right?

Yeah, 80. So when we're going, if you're on a flat road and you're going 20 miles an hour, 80% of the power that you put into your pedals is just to overcome the drag created by air and the resistance of the road. So if you can make yourself more aerodynamic, a smaller target or less turbulence going through the air, then you're going to go faster with less effort. So it was that. I spent that entire year, you know, reading items, changing this, changing that, noticing things, field testing different changes. For what would, uh, for what would lead to improved performance. So I'm, I'm excited to share with the, the audience today some of, some of these things that can— you can do and you can make immediate changes and improvements to your aerodynamics.

That's really cool. So, and let's just clarify, are you paid to do triathlon?

No, I pay to do triathlons.

I think so many people have this assumption that Oh, those things are reserved for like professional level athletes. And some of the things that you did were not necessarily, I mean, maybe some of them were expensive, but some of them weren't expensive. And 60 watts is massive.

Yeah. And I'll start with those things that are, that are, that are like nearly free, you know, that, that, that the listeners can, can do to really help themselves on, on watts. And, and, you know, there are some things, yes. There are some things where you may need to spend money to buy speed, but we'll save those kind of things for the end for the, for the audience. But, you know, the first thing I would recommend is if you have a road bike, if you don't have a triathlon bike, buy some clip-on aero bars. Clip-on aero bars are going to be like, I don't know, anywhere from— you could even get a used set. So maybe you could get a used set for $50, but up to $150 for clip-on aero bars. And what that is, that just puts you in a lower position so you're not sitting upright. If you're sitting upright, your chest and your upper body is just a parachute to capture wind. By putting those clip-on aero bars on your bike, you're able to ride in a lower position. And generally, for most people, that's gonna be 1 mile an hour improvement. So if you were riding at 18 miles an hour, you know, and you're putting out 150 watts, you're going to ride at 19 miles an hour putting out 150 watts. It's 1 mile per hour for, you know, anywhere from $50 to $150. That's the first place I would tell people to go. Now, it can be— it takes a little adaptation to be comfortable riding an aero because when we're riding upright with our hands on the hoods of our bikes, we have a wider base. When you bring your arms and elbows in, you have a narrow base, so you can feel like less stable on the bike. So how do you become comfortable riding in your aero bars? Practice. If you're indoors riding on a trainer, ride in your aero bars. No need to sit up except for practicing drinking water or something, but ride in your aero bars. And then when you go outside, commit to yourself that at least for part of the ride, find a space where you're comfortable and get down and ride in aero. After you practice it more and more and more, it just becomes second nature and you're just as comfortable or more comfortable riding an aero as you are upright. So that's, that's the first place I'd tell people to go from an aerodynamic standpoint is clip-on aero bars.

Yeah, those are some great tips. And I love how you reminded people to practice because yeah, you're using different muscles. So a lot of people will find that they're like their traps will get a little sore because, you know, your head is heavy.

Yes.

And to hold that up in arrow position, it, you know, you're switching muscles.

That's right. All of us. Yeah. All of us. Like when, when we go outdoors for the first time, when the weather's good, we're all going to have sore necks and sore shoulders because even though we're practicing it inside, it's just not the same as having to look up as often, you know, to make sure there aren't potholes or cracks in the road or you know, or cars on the road that you need to be mindful of. And all of these aerodynamic tips are like stage 2. Like stage 1 is just becoming very good at the fundamentals of riding the bike, you know, like being able to clip in, you know, with your shoes, being able to handle the bike around corners and curves and those kind of things, understanding how to shift and when to shift going up and down hills. You know, this is kind of the 101 of bike that you need to do before you maybe take the step here of getting better at aero. The other part of 101 is, you know, being able to eat and drink on the bike comfortably before you do these things. Because this is a little bit of a level up when you move to the aerodynamics piece.

Yeah, I agree. So all the things you mentioned are like cycling 101. And then this is more like Getting Faster 201 kind of thing, because I have seen so many folks who maybe aren't quite ready for aero bars and they're squirrely. They don't even— they don't drink anything. They are not able to, you know, have spatial awareness, like looking around themselves, seeing traffic, seeing people who might be passing them because they're just not quite skilled in just bike and like basic bike handling skills. Before they go to aero. So I think that's a good tip to make sure, have those things down first. And then this is like next step.

Yep.

Yep. So that's aero bars, aero clip-ons, check number 1.

Yep. And number 2, number 2 would be your, your, your, your jersey, the top that you wear. You want, if it flaps, it's slow. So you want a top that, that fits you snugly, that when you're in aero position, nothing is flapping. And I, I, I also. Prefer and recommend that it's sleeved by sleeve, that it goes down to your, just above your elbows, because exposed skin is slower. So the more exposed skin you have, the slower, the more resistance you're gonna have. And hairy skin exposed is even slower. So for you guys out there, go ahead and bite the bullet if you wanna be faster. Shave your arms and shave your legs. For races, you don't have to do it when it's not race time, but for race time, shave and you'll go faster.

You heard it here, folks.

Got to do it. Those are, those are, those are, you're going to have to wear a jersey anyway when you race. So you just get one that doesn't flap in the wind, that fits nice and snug and then shave.

Yes, agreed. And then for the ladies out there, I know so many of them are like, oh, but it's so tight. Girls, just show it off. Like, whatever, who cares, you know? Like, just, just be— everybody's like, oh, they're all looking at me. No, because they're just trying to keep their bikes upright. Like, just do it. Just go for it. You're— everybody, you are beautiful, wonderful human beings. Let's go race and have fun and get faster.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Uh, so next on the list, next on the list that I'd have for the listeners is, um, Latex tubes versus butyl tubes. If you're— if you have black tubes in your tires, those are most likely butyl tubes. There's a, there's a pink tube that's sold that's latex. These tubes are only— these tubes are, I think, like maybe $10, $15 each, right? Front and back tire. Changing from latex to— changing from the black to the pink is 2 to 4 watts per tire. So you can pick up, you know, anywhere from 5 to 10 watts by changing the tube that you run in your tire. And, you know, that's not about, that's not about doing more intervals, that's not about lifting more weights, it's just changing the tube in your tire. And it's affordable too, you know, if you're looking for those things which are affordable and can help you pick up speed and be more efficient.

That's really cool, especially for long course athletes. You know, like, that adds up if you're doing 56 miles, 112 miles. Like, that is— that's significant.

These are, yeah, just a little, little things that you, you pick up that I've, you know, found through research, testing, you know, testing these things myself. I'm like, yep, it makes a difference.

And to clarify, again, you're not a professional, professional, and you're also not in a wind tunnel.

No, no. So here's the way that, um, I have a training partner, and what we did is we had this, uh, we had this like 10-mile loop. The 10-mile loop was relative— wasn't overly hilly. It's not to say that it was perfectly flat, but it was, you know, there was a few hills in here and there. We would set up our bikes, we would make a change, and we would ride that loop a couple times. And then we would take that information, we'd put it into this very nice website called Best Bike Split, and it would come back and say, okay, this was your aerodynamics for that ride. and then we would, the next week, or we might make a change to our bikes and then go ride those 2 loops again, come back and see, okay, how did that change? But we spent an entire summer making these individual changes, anything from wearing a speed suit to tops, to how we positioned our bottles on our bicycles, to the tire pressure we ran. We just kept running these different variables. Over and over and over again all summer long. We needed to train anyway, uh, we needed to ride zone 2 anyway, so we said as long as we're doing it, let's, let's do some experiments and see how we can, how we can improve ourselves aerodynamically and efficiently on the bike.

That's so fun. I love that. What a cool experiment.

Yeah.

All right, so we did 2s, we did clothing, we did clip-on aero bars.

Next, bottles. Bottles, okay. Your bottles that you can carry your hydration and nutrition in. A torpedo bottle between the arms. It's right there in front of you, and it actually makes you more aerodynamic to have a torpedo bottle there. So even if you're doing a race and you don't need hydration or nutrition, you're doing a sprint, have the torpedo bottle there anyway. It makes you more aero. What it does is you, you, you want to close the gap between your hands and your head, because if you have a gap between your hands and your head, that wind coming between your head and your hands is hitting your midsection. Hitting your midsection is slowing you down. So you want to close that gap as, as much as you can, and a bottle helps do that a bit. Um, Also, if you think about where you have your bottles, if you don't have a torpedo bottle, in the process of drinking from your bottles, let's say that you have two bottles, you have a bottle below and a bottle behind, you know, so let's say that. How are you going to drink from that bottle? You're going to reach down, you're going to grab the bottle, you're going to sit up, you're going to open the bottle, and you're going to drink and squeeze the bottle in your mouth. Well, that sitting up that you just did increases your frontal surface and slows you down. Let's say you take nutrition every 10 minutes or hydration every 10 minutes, and that's a 1-minute process. Well, 10% of the time, you've just increased your drag by sitting up. So now 10% of your time, you're not an arrow. 10% of the time, you're actually creating more drag. So having a torpedo bottle there and taking your hydration and nutrition from the torpedo bottle improves your aerodynamics, and you're not sitting up creating drag by taking those bottles. And the other— so in long course racing, you're gonna need more than your torpedo bottle. You're gonna need more nutrition and hydration from that. You could be grabbing it from the aid station and filling your torpedo bottle, but you're gonna need it. What I do is I run 2 bottles behind me, immediately behind my seat, and I found that whether they're there or not there has no effect on my aerodynamics. So having the two bottles immediately behind my seat does not affect my aerodynamics. So what I do is when I empty my torpedo bottle, drink it all, then I simply— that's the point. Yes, I have to sit up, grab that bottle, refill my torpedo bottle, and then put that bottle back behind me. So maybe once an hour or once every 80 minutes, I do sit up and fill that torpedo bottle for nutrition purposes. Now, it's okay to sit up and come out of aero at certain times. I do recommend that. When do I recommend sitting up? If you're going uphill and you're going less than 12 miles an hour, you don't— you're not— there are no gains there. Go ahead and sit up, climb, be comfortable, and enjoy. That's also a good time to take nutrition too, if you wanted to, from your bottle behind. If you're going downhill at a speed that's uncomfortable for you— for me, that's if I'm going over 35 miles an hour, that's a little too fast. And I'm gonna sit up and have a little more safety than that. If you expect road obstacles, railroad tracks, sit up. Going over a bridge or those kind of things, sit up. If you're going around a sharp turn, sit up. You know, so there are times to come out of aero, but otherwise do everything you can to be in those aero bars. Bottles, so one torpedo, two behind is my preference. And then no, no round bottles on your bike frame. So none on the downtube, none on the seat tube. Round bottles on the bike frame are— will slow you down.

Okay, good tips.

And so all of these I'm trying to—

reminders for hydration too, right?

Yes. Yeah, yeah. Hydration, nutrition. Look, if you're doing long course, if you're doing long stuff, the bike is a cafeteria. So be be consuming consistently and on schedule on the bike.

Cool. All right, so we covered bottles.

Yep.

And aerodynamic tips, like when to sit up, when to be an aero.

Yeah, uh, once again, we're staying on the, on the, the affordable side of things. So next is cleaning your drivetrain and waxing or lubing your chain before you race. Uh, what do we mean there? Um, get you— get yourself a, a chain cleaning kit. It, you know, you're gonna spend $20, $25 at a bike store to do that. You get the— get the solution to clean your chain, buy yourself a good brand of wax or lube, and get yourself some brushes and clean off your rear cassette, clean off your front— your, your front chainring, clean your chain, lube it and wax it before you race. It can be worth up to, up to 10 watts. And, and, you know, it's, it's probably going to shift better. And, you know, shifting is, you know, so that you don't miss, miss something or drop a chain. But once again, it's something that's really affordable. You need to do it. And you— it's a good idea for just general bike maintenance to be looking at your bike and cleaning your bike because you never know, there may be something that you need to go and get fixed at the, at the, at the bike store or with a mechanic that you might identify when cleaning that you might not otherwise see. So clean, clean and lube your chain before a race.

Yes, that is a great tip because, uh, one of the telltale signs if athletes accidentally bump their calves into their chainrings or into their chain, they have those lovely black marks Now granted, you're gonna have— you might have some grease. That is okay. But if they're really black, that's usually a good sign that you probably need to do some cleaning.

Yep, yep, yep, yeah.

Cool. Um, and the wax is new. I think that is really cool. Well, newer. Um, that, that's done at the mechanic. They have this like cool— well, I mean, I mean, I guess you could do it at home, but they like dip Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's, that's like, that's a little even more top end, right? Um, mine, I use a, uh, like a, I use like a, um, a chain lube that's, that's kind of, uh, wax-based, and versus going in and there's, there's a, there is a really extensive process that a mechanic can do for you to, to help you out there too.

Do you have like a certain brand? Like, I'm a big Rock and Roll Lube fan because it cleans and lubes because I'm lazy. So there's that.

Yeah, I do not. I do not. I've got it in the garage, but I don't remember the brand.

Okay. All right. Well, if you remember it, if you find it, we'll put it in the show notes for folks.

So.

All right, cool. So, yeah, this has all been relatively affordable.

So. Yeah. Yeah. So we have— we haven't— so, so what I would have next on the list, Probably tires. Look at your tires. Are they worn? Do you need new tires? Ask the bike mechanic to evaluate your tires. If they're worn, that'd be a good chance to move to make sure you're riding a tire ready for racing. Like, I'm a big fan of like the Continental GT 5000. It's a really good tire, really good rolling resistance, very sturdy, very durable. There's some other good ones out there. There are some tires that are built not to puncture but aren't very fast. Um, so, so, you know, but I'm a, I'm a big fan of the Continental GT 5000. But there, you know, there's a, there's a Corsica Speed out there that's very good. There's some other, other products that are out there, but I think there's a brand called Gators. Um, those, those are very puncture resistant but also very, uh, very slow when it comes to rolling resistance. So So just be mindful of the tire that you put on when yours are worn.

And that doesn't mean that you might have a more puncture-resistant tire, say like during the winter, or if you know you're going to a place that might have a lot of debris, you're less likely to flat, you can train on them, but then get good at changing your tires.

Yep. And finally, yeah, and two, you can— you can look at different width of tires. Um, you know, at the time when I went through this process in 2019, it was recommended to me for me to look at wider tires, so a 25mm, you know, up to like a 28mm tire. And I looked at 25s, I looked at 28s, and I settled back on my 23mm tires. I just happened to find from my bike for how I ride that the 23mm tires were, were better, or just more fat, were faster for me. So people may want to look at different tire widths to see what's faster for them. 23mm worked best for me. And tire pressure— make sure you're running a, a good tire pressure for you, your body weight, and your bike. I looked at tire pressures that range from 80 pounds up to like 120 pounds And what I found for me that worked best was right on 100 pounds. 100 pounds in the front, 100 pounds in the back. And I actually bought a pump that gives me a digital readout so I can see, you know, so I don't have to eyeball the gauge and say, oh, it's somewhere between 105 and 100. You know, I actually have a digital pump that, that tells me the exact amount in there, and I try to land as close to 100 as I can. But once again, making sure— and this is another, um, most people know this— but pump up your tires the day of the race and not the day before the race, because bike tires will, and especially the latex tubes, will let some air out. So you might put 100 in the night before, but the day of the race you might be down to 90 pounds. So just before you, you know, that's the, that's the one of the first things I do in the morning after I wake up and have 2 cups of coffee before the race is I pump up my tires and make sure there's 100 pounds in, in the front and back.

Nice, I dig it. All right, cool. Um, so we've done shaving, we've done tires, we've done cleaning the chain, we've done our tubes, clothing, clip-on aero bars.

Yeah, I think maybe There's a— now we're going to step into a little bit— we're going to step into some dollars.

Dollar bills.

All right, some dollar bills. Um, and this first one isn't— I'll start with the maybe a least expensive option, um, is the rear tire. The, the rear tire, they, uh, you can purchase a disc cover. So for like $100 to $150, you can purchase a cover that goes over your rear tire that creates a disc version, you know. So if you see pros or top-end athletes, you'll see a lot of them with a full disc on the back. If you want to buy a full disc, you can, but if you're going to buy a full disc like Zipp or Envy, you're going to drop $1,000 or $1,500 on that rear tire. And so what I've done is I, I bought a rear disc cover that goes over my rear tire and creates that rear disc. And it was, you know, $100 to $150. I needed to learn how to take off my rear cassette, you know, so I needed a chain whip and a certain type wrench to take off my rear cassette so I could put on this rear disc cover. But I was still way money ahead by buying those tools and learning how to do this myself and put that on, and it wasn't overly difficult. You know, some YouTube videos and a little time and patience, and I got it done. So for about $100 to $150, you could put a rear disc cover on that wheel and create something that is substantially similar to a full disc.

And I know for those of you who might be like, oh my gosh, changing my cassette, that's scary, like, it's really not.

It is, it is a scary thought. It is a scary thought. You're like, I, if I take this thing off, can I put it back together and put it on? But it's almost foolproof. Once you take it off, it's like, it's really, it'd be really difficult not to put it back on correctly.

So it's like a puzzle piece that has to only go in one way.

It's, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. It only goes back together one way, and it's pretty obvious how it goes back together. So that's, you know, that's spending a little bit of money, $100 to $150. And so that's the rear tire. The front tire, deep rims. Deep rims are faster than shallow rims, and carbon is faster than aluminum. So I do recommend that you have a deep rim on the front. I run, I run a 60mm deep rim on the, on the front. That's going to cost you— on sale you might be able to find one for $500, you know, um, but if it's, if it's not on sale, if you're going to buy something for the front, it may cost you $1,000. Um, it's just, you know, it, it, it does— it will make a difference. It will save you watts. And so that is— that's an investment that I did make and have made, is, is, is that investment. So those are, those are your, those are your rims. Um, the next, you know, the next investment that you— that people should consider is an aero fit, is being— is being fit for aerodynamics on the bike. Uh, going to someone who— that's what they do and then expect kind of the following, right? Expect that they're probably going to raise your saddle and tilt your saddle forward, and they're probably going to put on shorter cranks because by raising the saddle, you need to shorten the crank so your legs can still reach effectively. Um, they're gonna— then, then they're— expect that they will maybe lower your, your, uh, your bars in the front and then tip them back towards you because what you really want, you want kind of a flattish back. Once again, you don't want to be up and exposed and you're gonna want your hands a little closer to your face to close the gap between your head and your hands. So one of the final things I'd recommend is if you're going down this process, to go get a professional bike fit for specifically for aerodynamics. And it's going to be— it'll be a process because it, it may be— it may be— you may be aerodynamic that way, but you may not be comfortable, and you need to give it a little time. If you can't find comfort, then you, you're going to have to make adjustments to that to be less aerodynamic so you're more comfortable. Because if you're so uncomfortable that you won't stay in aero and you keep sitting up, you've lost the advantage. So you have to find that blend between aerodynamics and comfort so that you're— so that you can stay in that position for a few hours.

And everybody is a little different, right? So some people have longer femur bones, some people's joints are a little closer together. And that's why it's so important to get a good fit because, you know, people's mobility is a little bit different. And, you know, maybe you have some back issues and you you can't be quite as aggressive as you might like. But, and so that's where somebody who's good at fit comes in. So, and I'm glad you mentioned the crank arm lengths, although we kind of glazed over it a little bit, but that's definitely more of the industry standard is going to shorter crank arm lengths. And I'm finding more and more that women, especially, especially smaller women, are running cranks that are too long.

Yeah. So just, yeah, just, just for reference, right? I'm, I'm 6 feet tall and my, my crank arms are 165, 165 millimeters.

Yeah.

So if you might be, if you might be 5 feet 5 inches tall and you're running 170 millimeters, just, you know, heads up, mine are just 165.

Yeah.

Cool.

Um, I know we touched on mobility and cranks, and, um, I think we got maybe one or two more. Let's see, um, what goes on our noggin?

Oh, helmets. Yes, thank you, thank you. One, you have to wear a helmet if you're gonna race. You have to wear a helmet. Um, what type helmet? Everybody's head and body are different. I went with an aero helmet. I have an Evade aero helmet, but mine is more of a road cycling helmet. I looked at more true aero helmets at the time, like a Giro Arrowhead and more aerodynamic helmets. But I found that my Specialized Evade helmet, which is an aero road helmet, worked as well for me or better. It worked as well for me as those others did. And what I got from it was I got more ventilation. So it was able to, it was more comfortable on my head. I got more ventilation, so I was able to stay cooler. It just fit my head better. So helmets are very personalized. So, you know, it's the opportunity to, you know, if you have a buddy or a partner or someone you know, who has a different helmet and they like their helmet, just switch. Just switch helmets, ride a few laps, see how it works for you. If it works great for you, go buy that helmet. If it doesn't, stick with the one that you have.

Cool, very good tips. Uh, so I think, I think we got it all. Yeah, pretty sure we did. It's a good list. Um, one of the things I know that we had mentioned in our coaches meeting is referencing watts in a very specific way. Because you say 180 watts, that might be somebody's FTP, that might be somebody's zone 2, that— so yes, if somebody says like a really big number, like I rode 400 watts or 500, we're like, once you get up to a certain number, you're like, yes, that's a very large number. But how would you recommend— I know Best Bikes does a really good job of some of this, of how would you recommend people thinking about watts on the bike in relation to their size?

A common metric that people like to use are watts per kilogram. So we all have different body masses, and that makes a difference. And that's very important and relative. So let's say that you have a person who weighs 120 pounds. You know, so we'll call that, we'll call that 50 kilos, right? 120 pounds. And then you have someone who maybe weighs 220 pounds, and we'll call that 100 kilograms, right? So you have two very different bodies there. You should expect that the individual who has, who weighs 220 pounds or 100 kilograms should put out more power than someone who weighs 110 pounds or 100 or 50 kilograms. Why? Well, you know, imagine that that person has maybe more muscle mass and those kinds of items. They, yes, they can put out more power. It does not mean that they will go faster though. If you, what should you expect? So think of it, you know, if that person who weighs 50 kilograms, has an FTP of 100. Well, then that's 2 watts per kilogram is what that person does. This other person who weighs 100 kilograms has to have a 200-watt FTP to be at 2 watts per kilogram, to be at the same watts per kilogram. So you can see that someone may have 200 watts and someone may have 100 watts. Well, It's the same watts per kilogram. So it's all about making it, making it relevant. So yes, you may hear some very large numbers. Well, you have to take body size into account for that because someone who's smaller, that, that, that 50-kilogram person, they just have less overall mass that they have to push through the air. So if we talked about, you know, the body is the biggest drag point, that small body, that, that person who is 50 kilograms or 110 pounds, they have a much smaller area. That bigger person at 220 pounds or 100 kilograms has to push a tremendous amount of frontal surface through the air. So it doesn't mean that, that absolute watts are not, are not a difference maker. It's, it's watts per kilogram. And it's, it's frontal area that's exposed to the wind and aerodynamics. So don't get— yes, there's big numbers out there. And sometimes the numbers are big enough to matter. But this isn't, you know, you need to keep it in reference, in perspective.

Yeah, good point. And also not just basing— hopefully this was a good example to remind people to not just base on, oh, I go X miles per hour, right? Right. Basically what we're trying to do is get more efficient and get more and, and go through, uh, space in a smaller area so that you can just generally be more efficient. So speed—

yeah, yeah, miles per hour or super miles per hour are super deceptive, uh, and, and sometimes not a good measure especially in triathlon. If we take a local race that we often do here is the NC North Carolina 70.3, which is out on the coast. We've raced that in years where there was no wind and it's a very flat course and your miles per hour are just gonna be higher because you're not fighting the wind. But we've had times where we had like a 20+ mile an hour headwind all the way out for nearly 20+ miles. And if you've got a 20-mile-an-hour headwind, I'm, you know, the— your speed is going to be different. Even when you turn around and come back with it at your, at your backside, you're going to be 10 or 15 minutes slower. Miles per hour is, is a dangerous— not the best metric to use always.

I'm glad you brought that up too, because so many of us are hooked on numbers. Naturally, and that's okay. But if you can think of those numbers in context of the bigger picture, like so many of us are, oh, I want to break X time on a 70.3 in the example that you were giving, and then let's say that day has a 20-mile-an-hour headwind. So looking instead at things like what can be your sustained power during the bike? Or are there strategic things that you can do regardless of what the weather is going to be? Or are there little things that you can focus on in terms of more subjective measures too, like getting through the bike comfortably or, you know, confidently, or, you know, drinking without getting out of aero? Or, you know, gosh, there's so many different ways to set a goal. Other than just time-based.

Yeah, I look at it that, that focus on the process and the result is the outcome of the process because the conditions can change. You don't know the conditions of the day or you don't know a lot of things, but just focus on your process. Like, like mine on the bike, mine on the bike is, uh, hydration and nutrition every 10 minutes. Mine on the bike is keeping my heart rate you know, in, in, in the range that I, I want and making sure I don't exceed certain limits when it comes to power, because, you know, the last thing the bike is, the is, is the setup for the run. And it's not what you can do on the bike. It's what you should do on the bike to prepare yourself to run well.

I think we, uh, I think we coined that as one of your isms. Right? No, we haven't. Oh, we're gonna have to add that. So just so everybody else knows, we sort of joke in our coaches' meeting that every coach kind of has like these sayings or what we call isms. You know, like Marty says, "Be a bag of potato chips," especially at Ironman North Carolina. You're gonna make it through the swim. You just float. Just float along. Now granted, obviously he's being sort of silly, but I think that might have to be your new ism, Jason. That's really good.

It's not what you— it's not what you can do on the bike, it's what you should do on the bike.

Super smart, super strategic. I dig it. All right, so if we had to give people kind of like a summary of things that they can walk away with, or hopefully the things that they have absorbed, what would be those things that you would remind them of?

That there's a— there's a lot of free speed available for— for not a lot of cost. And what it can mean to you in a 70.3 is it can mean 5 to 20 minutes a faster bike split. Think of aero bars, stay in aero. Make sure it doesn't flap in the wind, and skin is slow, and hairy skin is slower. Make sure you have the chain is clean and your bike tubes are filled with air, and some of those other small things that we talked about. And practice, you know, just go out, experiment and have fun. You gotta— you want to ride your bike, you enjoy riding your bike, just go, go experiment and have fun with it.

That's awesome, I love it. So if you guys got some value out of this and you're interested in working with our group, you can head on over to theenduranceedge.com/triathloncoaching. Maybe you want to work with Jason or any one of our awesome coaches. Jason, this was awesome. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Chris, great time.

Awesome. Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. We will catch you next time. Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at the Endurance Edge. Thanks again, and we'll catch you next time.