Triathlon Ready for the Bike: Tips on Transition, Fueling & Pacing Ep 48

Every endurance athlete remembers the moment when things finally click. Your swim feels smoother, your pacing makes sense, your fueling works, and suddenly the sport feels not only easier, but more fun. And for many athletes, that moment happens at training camp. That's exactly why we created the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp happening April 22nd through 26th at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. For 4 incredible days, you'll train in a small group with expert coaches, sports nutrition support, and sports psychology guidance, all designed to help you train smarter, race stronger, and finally connect the dots in your performance. We swim in crystal clear mountain water, ride beautiful and challenging roads, run scenic trails, and spend the rest of the time recovering, learning, laughing, and eating some seriously amazing chef-prepared food.

Mm-hmm.

Camp is intentionally small, just 20 athletes, so you get real coaching, true connection, and amazing breakthroughs. So if you want an experience that can transform your entire season, we invite you to join us. Head to theenduranceedge.com and click training camp and reserve your spot with just a $100 deposit. Come train hard, learn a ton, and leave stronger than you ever imagined.

I'll see you there. Welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. This is day 3 of our podcast blitz leading into Ironman North Carolina 70.3. But again, some of these tips are applicable to whatever race you might be doing. Today is all about the bike. So once you have exited the water, and I'm in North Carolina, the transition from water to the transition area or T1 is kinda long. So just be prepared for that. It is on, um, concrete and pavement. So some people will slide their shoes next to the, along sort of the dock area to put those on. But come on, y'all, you can make it. You can make it to the transition area, which is on grass. So when you are setting up your transition area, just some key tips. Don't forget to check your tire pressure on the race morning just in case something has happened after you check your bike overnight. And then keep things as simple as possible. So I know it's gonna be a little cooler on race morning, so consider having arm warmers if you're somebody who really is sensitive to the cold. One of my favorite pieces of gear is a really light vest. It keeps the wind off of your core. And keeps you just at that right temperature that as it starts to warm up and the sun starts to come out, you're gonna be okay. If your toes tend to be a little bit more sensitive, uh, to being cold and because you're wet coming outta the water, you may want to put some neoprene toe covers on. But that is a total personal preference. For the arm warmers, I like those because you can pull them off, um, at any time. You can even slide them down just to your wrists without needing to, you know, get off or anything like that. But that's totally dependent on your comfort level and how chilly you're willing to be. If this were a sprint or Olympic distance, you may be fine without anything just because your intensity is gonna be much higher. But for this race as a half Ironman, you're kind of harder than easy and easier than hard. So your intensity is not, or shouldn't be too terribly high. So you may need that little extra bit of, uh, warmth, but otherwise keep it simple. Helmet, sunglasses. Vest, uh, whatever shoes you're going to wear, maybe your socks. That's personal preference. Um, I do like having a small towel or a large towel. It doesn't matter, whatever you prefer to dry off a little bit, especially again, if you're sensitive to the cold. And it also makes getting arm warmers on much easier. Same thing with socks. If you prefer to put socks on, it's, as you probably remember, putting socks on when it's wet is just a pain. So a little bit of drying off does go a long way. All right. Another thing specific to this race is you are gonna be salty getting outta the Intracoastal Waterway, and there are not hoses to rinse you off like there are at Kona. Um, so if you don't want to have all that, um, salt drying on you and potentially causing some chafing, you can fill just a throwaway water bottle or a water bottle that you don't mind, um, putting into your transition bag when you're done. Just filling it with water and pouring it onto kind of key areas that might chafe, like armpits, uh, the nether regions, um, maybe even your feet, but anything that you feel like you need to rinse off. I also prefer to rinse out my mouth, having all that salt water in my mouth and lips. I'm also personally obsessed with ChapStick, so I always have that on my bike and making sure that I don't have dry or chapped lips, especially being in that salt water. So Uh, and this is also a good opportunity if you wanna have a little bit of a snack, you can. I have one athlete who loves his grandma's cookies. Um, you do you, and hopefully you have tried all of those nutrition things in training cuz that's super important, which is a perfect segue, nutrition and hydration on the bike. So we wanna make sure that we're being really consistent with your intake. So it's not like, huh, when was the last time I had a drink? Or when was the last time I had a gel? It should be consistent in intake, which stimulates what's called gastric gastric emptying. So your stomach emptying into your small intestines where there is the opportunity for additional absorption and delivery of those carbohydrates and necessary calories to working muscles. So consistency is important rather than, you know, stuffing your face at, you know, key times. It's better to have that consistent intake and, and nutrition. Hopefully you've gotten your fluid, your electrolytes, and your carbohydrate intake nailed by this point, cuz that is another podcast. Um, but that's super important to stay consistent when you're on the bike. Know that there are water bottle handoffs. Hopefully you are skilled in grabbing a bottle if you need one, or having something that you can throw away at the aid station. So those are things again to start to think about and how much you can carry on your person. So hopefully some of those logistical things have been worked out for nutrition and hydration. Um, I love pockets on your kit or on vests to be able to carry various things or, something on the top tube of your bike or having aero bottles, things like that that make it easier logistically for you to carry all your nutrition and hydration. So now key things about pacing and strategy. Uh, first of all, when you, uh, and this goes back to setting up your transition area, make sure you're in the right gear. That's a really important one. You don't necessarily wanna be in this massive gear that you get out and you're like, oh my gosh, I can like barely push the bike. But you also don't wanna be spinning like a mad person. Um, you are coming out onto kind of a relatively flat road when you exit transition. So you shouldn't, you know, kind of a middle of the road gear should be fine, but then going over the bridge can be a little, um, uh, sort of, you know, disheartening. Uh, so you do wanna be in a good enough gear that you're not gonna panic or trying to be, you know, pushing some large gear as you go over that bridge. Um, but other than that, you should be good to go. So from a pacing perspective, again, like I mentioned, I have Ironman pace is just so weird. It's not easy, and I'm air quoting here. I know you can't see me, but not easy like more of an Ironman, and it's not hard like in a sprint or Olympic. It's kind of easier than hard and harder than easy. Um, kind of in between, right? But the tendency, because if you've tapered right and you've been training right and you had a really good swim, you're probably gonna want to go really hard and really fast, and that's gonna shoot you in the foot by the time you get to the run. So, What we use for our power numbers with our athletes is typically somewhere between 80, 75 and 85% of your FTP or your lactate threshold pace on the bike. If you are not using power, that's okay. Again, it's easier than hard and harder than easy. Definitely don't wanna be hitting your, that zone 4 heart rate zone, cuz again, probably going to be wearing yourself out. And this is all very athlete specific, more of your Faster athletes or more experienced athletes can, um, and have been training specifically for that, may be able to get away with those pacing strategies. But the rest of us, uh, including myself, probably not gonna be able to get away with that too much. So this is kind of that solid sort of zone 2, maybe into zone, um, or I should say zone 3, maybe into zone 2. Also consider, and this is unique to every race, you're at the coast, so you're probably gonna have some pretty fierce winds, uh, potentially. So be prepared for that, especially depending on what type of gear you're gonna have. Like if you're gonna do race wheels or like a solid, uh, race wheel on the back, also make sure that those are definitely prepared and ready to go before you head out onto the bike. But just be expecting that it's less about the speed and more about your physiological pacing, uh, especially when it comes to heading into, say, a headwind, for example. You're gonna wanna push faster cuz you wanna increase your speed, but then how much does that wear you down and dip into your glycogen stores that is going to affect your run? So gotta be kind of careful about that pacing strategy. And similar, uh, conversation to the headwind part, um, making sure that you've got some good bike handling skills. You still have to honor all the rules of the road. Um, so courteous braking, a good cornering, not being riding all over the road or being squirrely, holding your line, uh, making sure that you have smooth gear shifting. Um, but luckily there's not a whole lot of technical sections of this particular course. There might be some more, um, technical sections on courses that you do elsewhere, like Placid, for example. Um, so always making sure that you're honoring the rules of the road and handling your bike safely in consideration of others. Don't forget that helmet. Make sure you're wearing it properly. It should be sort of centered right on the middle of your forehead, not sort of tilted back or tilted to the side and that kind of stuff. If you do have any sort of mechanical issues, hopefully you know how to change your own tire. Hopefully you know how to adjust some of those things, but know that there is on-course support. You just might be waiting a while for it. Um, so, you know, sometimes we gotta think on the fly. And then also making sure that you have all the necessary equipment with you, like a spare tube, uh, method of inflation. So CO2, which, um, is great, but sometimes you gotta be a little bit more careful with that. Uh, you can always do a backup of having a pump with you. Uh, tire levers are great definitely too if you can. And then I always tend to carry like say a dollar or 5 on me just in case you need to put that as sort of a temporary patch or if you just happen to be by a gas station and need to grab a water or Gatorade or a snack, that's always kind of a fallback method of being able to do that. And like I said, other things that I have on, on my person are my ChapStick. Again, personally obsessed with ChapStick. So making sure that you have those items on your person, even if you don't know how to change a flat, maybe somebody will be nice and kind of stop and help you out. As long as you have the necessary equipment, you should be good to go. Then it comes to mental strategies on the bike. Sometimes, especially if you're newer and have never done this distance before, it can be a lot. It can feel like a lot. So thinking again about just like you did on the swim, going say buoy to buoy, breaking down your bike into reasonable chunks. So let's say it's 10-mile chunks that you're gonna be looking for, or 5-mile chunks cuz maybe your watch goes off, um, sort of automatically every 5 miles and you can set it to whatever you would like. Don't forget about engaging in that positive self-talk and really visualizing yourself getting done with the bike and getting across the finish line, but also enjoy the journey. It's a lot of fun. So as you head into transition, this is a good one for people just flying into the bike dismount line. I have witnessed multiple people just literally just zip right over that dismount line. Don't forget you have to dismount before that line. Um, inevitably people are wobbly when they get off the bike. You have probably been battling some wind. It might be a little bit chilly. It's almost like everybody is frozen in their bike position, whether it be an aero position or in that sort of road bike position. Everybody sits up to get off the bike and then they're just like, uh, you can almost hear their backs and hips cracking as they sort of like go to stand up and inevitably Somebody is going to fall over at the dismount line, whether they can't clip out or they clip out too early and then they get off too early and then somebody behind them runs into them. So be mindful of other people around you as you're exiting, you know, kind of do like a quick glance over your shoulder just to see who's around you and be sure if you are clipped in to clip out safely, don't forget to lean the bike ever so slightly in the direction that you are clipping out on. So if you're clipping out on your right foot, you're ever so slightly slightly leaning to your right so that your foot can come down. But again, inevitably somebody's gonna, somebody's gonna tip over and it's not going to be you, right? So another little tip as you're coming in hot into that transit, into that area, because it is like kind of a really nice straightaway, you turn this corner and you're like, yes, there's the dismount line, everybody just hauls butt to the end. This is a good opportunity to spin your legs a little bit. Drop that gear and make it super easy for yourself so that you can transition to the run. Um, and you know, maybe even sitting up a little bit, maybe even standing up and kind of stretching your back before you know you have to get off the bike. I mean, this is like mere, not even seconds, uh, to make sure that you have a good transition. Obviously there's gonna be volunteers there and there's that big, you know, arch that you're gonna be shooting for. But still be safe, be courteous to the people around you, and hopefully have a good transition to the run. And it is on pavement, so, and the, uh, T2 is on pavement. So anyway, hopefully this helped for some quick tips as you head into race week, preparing for the bike, making sure you got your hydration, your nutrition, uh, prepared for any mechanical issues. You've got your tire pressure correct, you've got your mental strategies in place. And you're ready to go have fun. So thanks for listening and let's head into day 4 of the podcast blitz and we're gonna be talking all about the run and I will catch you then.

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.