That's right - we went there! This episode may get us labeled as "potty mouths," but coaches Matt Bach and Joanna Nami were willing to dump some knowledge on a topic athletes are often hesitant to ask about. Join us for a mostly mature conversation about bathroom basics for triathletes. How do you take care of business pre-race? How do you minimize port-o-potty stops during your next event? To pee or not to pee on the bike? This episode has the answers, and much more! Huge thanks to Precision Fuel & Hydration for partnering with us on this episode. To learn more about Precision Fuel & Hydration, head to precisionfuelandhydration.com and use code TRIDOT10 for 10% off your electrolytes and fuel. On their site, you can: 1. Take the free online Sweat Test to receive a personalized hydration plan. 2. Complete the Quick Carb Calculator to understand how many grams of carbohydrate you need to consume during your next race. 3. Book a free 20-minute video consultation with a member of the Precision Hydration team to discuss your fueling strategy.
TriDot Podcast .133
The ABC’s of #1s and 2s
Intro: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses your training data and genetic profile, combined with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results in less time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire, and entertain. We’ll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Join the conversation and let’s improve together.
Andrew Harley: Alright folks! It’s time. The episode you didn’t know you needed until it landed on your podcast playlist. It’s the potty show or as we are calling it the ABC’s of going #1 and #2. We’ve got two coaches with us today and they are eager to help us optimize our tri related bathroom needs and visits. Now I am only so mature, so there will be some corny potty jokes somewhere along the way here, but for the most part we’re going to keep this matter-of-fact and we’re going to keep this professional. But that said, if you are grossed out by the thought of three adults talking about peeing in a wetsuit on a podcast, this episode might not be for you and that’s okay. For the rest of you, let’s get it going. Our first guest joining us today is Matt Bach. Matt is an accomplished athlete with an Ironman Maryland victory and 72nd overall finish in Kona on his résumé. He worked on Wall Street as a trader and portfolio manager for nine years, earned his MBA from Temple University, worked in marketing at UCAN for two and a half years before coming onboard to lead TriDot’s marketing efforts. Matt Bach, on a scale of 1 to 10, how pumped are you for this conversation?
Matt Bach: I am so pumped. Like a 10. I’m actually pissed off that we waited this long to have this conversation. I’ve got two young turds, I mean kids. So my wife and I talk about pee-pees and poopies half the day as it is. So this will just be a normal hour for me.
Andrew: Great.
Matt: And I apologize if I use the word pee-pees and poopies and potty instead of more mature words. I blame it on having a 2 and a 4 year old.
Andrew: Yep, we’ll give it to you. Everybody’s got words for it and we’re going to hear them today. It’s going to be great. Next up is TriDot coach Joanna Nami. Joanna is better known as Coach Jo-Jo and has been coaching athletes with TriDot since 2012. She is a co-founder of Hissyfit Racing, a member of the Betty Design Elite Squad and at the moment has 16 Ironman finishes on her accomplished triathlon resume. Coach Jo has qualified for two Ironman World Championships and will be racing both St. George and Kona here in 2022. Coach Jo-Jo, thanks for joining the bathroom nuggets episode.
Joanna Nami: I don’t know if I should feel honored to have been asked to speak on this podcast. I’m not sure what that says about me, but in following what Matt said I won’t be using the terms pee-pees and poo-poos because I live with four grown men. That sounds bad, but I have three sons, 16, 18, and 22 and those terms are definitely not used in our house, but I’ll try to keep it G-rated.
Andrew: Well I’m Andrew the Average Triathlete, Voice of the People and Captain of the Middle of the Pack. As always we'll approach the show like any other workout. We’ll roll through our warm up question, settle in for our main set conversation, and then wind things down with our cool down. Lots of good stuff, let's get to it!
Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.
Andrew: The word game Wordle has become a low-key cultural phenomenon and tasks its players with solving for a five letter word by guessing and rearranging the letters of the alphabet through a series of six guesses. Wordle has become so popular that it has sparked all sorts of spinoffs like Footle which is all football related words, Taylordle for Taylor Swift fans, SWordle for Star Wars fans, Bridle for bird watchers, and Heardle where music lovers get six guesses to name a song by a clip of music. So, if the TriDot software engineers were to create a Tridle, providing a daily five letter word relating to the multisport universe for all of us to guess, if you were in charge of the next Tridle word what word would you pick? Matt Bach, we’ll go to you first on this.
Matt: I love this question. I do play Wordle. I love it. My word, I’m going to go with sleep both because I love it and because its our #1 performance enhancing tool.
Andrew: Ooo. Talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. We need to have a sleep episode. Sleep is so important to performance. That’s on our hit list of episodes to get out here this year and yeah, with the SL at the beginning– I know whenever you throw the double vowel into the mix it can kind of throw people for a little bit, take a little longer for them to guess that word. But yeah. Sleep is a multisport universe word for sure. So going over to Coach Jo. What is your five letter word pick for this?
Joanna: My goodness. It took me like 15 minutes to even contemplate this.
Andrew: Sure.
Joanna: I think my kids have thoroughly dumbed me up, but it would have to be one of the swim words we go to as in catch or draft because that’s all I talk about all day long.
Andrew: Yep and Coach Jo I know you love the swim. I know you love coaching the swim. I know you love being in the water doing the swim so yeah a lot of five letter words that come into play with the water. Jo, do you play Wordle? Are you a Wordler?
Joanna: No! I barely have time to shower. I came here from the bike.
Andrew: That’s hilarious.
Matt: Speaking of the potty, which this whole episode is about, that’s when I do my Wordle.
Andrew: There you go. And potty, potty is actually a five letter word so potty could be a Tridle word somewhere along the way. So I actually– I had this idea at the beginning of an indoor training ride. I was Zwifting and I thought of this. I don’t play Wordle myself. My wife plays Wordle. I found one called Worldle and it gives you– It shows you kind of the outline of a country and you have six guesses to guess what that country is. Some days it’s pretty easy. Australia was the other day. That was pretty clear straight out the gate and sometimes it’s a little harder. It’s some random island in the middle of nowhere you’ve never heard of. So anyway, I had this idea. I’m on a trainer ride and I’m starting to think of five letter words. The one I’m going to go with is carbs. I love my carbs. I love pretzels and Cheez-its and bread and baked goods. I’ve said this many times– everything good under the sun worth eating to me is a carb. Even the vegetables I like are carbs. Fruits which I love are carbs and so I would throw carbs in there just as a personal– I mean, I get happy instantly. If I was solving the puzzle and I solved the word carbs, I’d be like, “Sweet! I love carbs.” and I’d go eat some right there on the spot.
Matt: Sweet. Sweet is a carb.
Andrew: Sweet is a carb, yeah, you’re absolutely right. Anyway, I can’t wait to hear what other people in the TriDot podcast audience have to say here. So of course, as we always do, we’re going to throw this question out to you our audience. So go find the post on the I AM TriDot Facebook page asking you if you were picking the next five letter word for a triathlon version of Wordle, what word would you nominate to be the next one up?
Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…
PRECISION FUEL AND HYDRATION: This show is brought to you by Precision Fuel and Hydration who have a wide range of tools and products to help you personalize your fueling and hydration strategy so that you can perform at your best. Long-time listeners of the show will know them as Precision Hydration, but they’ve changed their name to reflect the fact that they’ve been helping athletes nail both aspects of their performance for a long time now. Everyone sweats differently and the amount of fuel require varies depending on factors like duration and intensity of our activity so one-size-fits-all approach to fueling and hydration just doesn’t cut it. Head to precisionfuelandhydration.com and use their free online sweat test and quick carb calculator to understand your fluid, electrolyte, and carbohydrate needs during training and racing. Then you can book a free one-on-one video consultation with the team to refine your hydration and fueling strategy for your upcoming race. As a listener of the show you can get 10% off your first order of fueling and hydration products by using the code TRIDOT10 at the checkout. Once again, that’s precisionfuelandhydration.com
Andrew: It’s a cold, hard fact that everybody poops and when it comes to triathlon race day everyone has to do it in close proximity and in the same few dozen bathrooms. As such, multisport athletes are some of the most comfortable people on the planet when it comes to conversing about bowel movements. From eliminating GI issues during training to executing a solid pre-race poo and minimizing the time lost to the porta potty on race day, there is plenty for us to cover here as Matt and Jo give us the ABC’s of going #1 and #2. We’re going to answer all the questions you’ve always wanted to ask a coach about going to the bathroom. So at every distance of triathlon there is time to be saved by having potty strategies in place. As coaches, part of prepping your athletes for a race is kind of sparking the part of the conversation to make sure that they don’t lose time to the potty. So Matt, Jo, are your athletes shocked when you bring this topic up and how do those conversations go when you’re having potty talk with your athletes?
Matt: I find this a pretty big divide. If they’re new to the sport then yes, there is shock. They are generally shocked that I’m bringing it up and shocked when I tell them the lengths that many athletes will go to in order to minimize that potty time. If the athlete though is one that’s spent a bit of time in the sport then there’s not really any shock at all.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: So it’s a very polarizing type of topic. They’ll often share their own experiences or strategies with me at that point and so I’ve learned a thing or two from some of the athlete’s that I’ve coached and spoken with.
Andrew: Yep. Jo, what about for you when you bring this up with your athletes? Is there any shock as Coach Jo asks, “Hey, what’s your bathroom strategy for this upcoming race?”
Joanna: I agree with Matt. I think people new to the sport are a little bit dumbfounded when I bring it up, but then I also– You’ll usually put everything in terms of my mom-isms and dealing with kids. It’s just like dealing with athletes and you have to be upfront about it. You know, I’m a big proponent of we’re always talking about nutrition plans and practicing our nutrition plans and with that comes GI issues. Hopefully we encounter those early on and then make modifications to get those fixed.
Andrew: Yeah, and you certainly see in the professional ranks even. I mean, bathroom strategy comes into play. There’s always the fun articles every year when the Tour de France comes around where they’ll highlight how Tour de France riders stop and use the bathroom along the way while they’re riding for six, seven hours a day every single day. I recall a few Boston Marathons ago when Des Linden won the Boston Marathon, a storyline early on in that race was Shalane Flanagan having to make an unexpected porta potty stop early on in the race and Des helped pace her back to the front. So even watching the professional ranks at these races, you see you’re going to have to stop and go to the bathroom sometimes even when they maybe didn’t plan to. So it’s definitely– whether you’re at the ceiling of the sport as a pro or brand new to the sport, you need to know how to kind of cross that bridge when you come to it when nature calls when you’re pre-race, mid-race, mid-workout. So thank you both for coming on the show today to talk about this. None of us on this episode have anything remotely close to a biology or a medical degree, nor do I think we need a play-by-play of how poop gets made and why we’ve got to let it rip from time to time, but I think a triathlete could benefit from knowing things like how long does it take for our body to process food? What can we learn by the color of our #1s and the form of our #2s? And what is happening in our system when we are having GI distress? So with these questions in mind, Matt what does a triathlete need to know about the biology of bowel movements?
Matt: Yeah, on #1s you want them to be a pale yellow. You don’t want it to be clear. That means you’re over hydrated. You actually need to back off the water at that point. There could be damage done if you take in too much water relative to sodium and sodium helps you to retain it. So the symptom there, or the evidence that you’re overdoing it or under doing it is clear in your urine. Clear– maybe I shouldn’t use that word. It’s evident in your urine. You don’t want it to be clear and you don’t want it to be too dark either. I mean I would say that– so the upper side of that is you don’t want it to be really any darker than apple juice. So if you’re starting to get to kind of like a dark yellowish, even into an orange or something, that’s not good. Orange or like a brownish color you know you’re in deep doo-doo, I mean trouble.
Andrew: Matt, I can’t wait for somebody to be grocery shopping after hearing this episode and they’re going to be at the apple juice aisle and they’re going to think to the proper pee color as they are looking at apple juice on the shelf in the grocery store. I can’t wait for that moment for somebody out there listening.
Matt: Or hopefully when somebody is watching this they’re going to be drinking something…
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: …and it’ll just spew out of their nose because they’re laughing and can’t believe we said something that we said. On the #2 side, though, there’s actually something called a Bristol stool chart. If you haven’t heard of it, you should Google the “Bristol stool chart.” It’s actually quite a nifty explanation of the spectrum of #2’s ranging from type 1 which is constipation, to type 6 which is very loose like diarrhea with type 3 and type 4 in the middle considered normal. As triathletes we often subject ourselves to very stressful things like racing in hot conditions or consuming an onslaught of sugary foods and when you do those things one of the repercussions is often more toward the type 6 end of the spectrum, diarrhea. As far as when it comes to GI distress– you mentioned what’s happening in our system when we have GI distress. As you mentioned in the intro there, I used to work at UCAN and prior to that I had a whole bunch of personal experience with GI distress. So it’s very unfortunate, but a very common thing in the world, especially in the world of triathletes. At least especially when you get out to those longer distances. But I have a lot of experience with it. I suffered through cured NM at my time working at UCAN and continued to learn a lot more about it. So we typically experience GI distress because of a fancy word called osmolality– or it’s one of the reasons. Osmolality, which in layman’s terms, relates to the concentration of a fluid in your stomach, or the stomach’s ability to clear that fluid and if it’s too concentrated it will sit and slosh in your stomach causing things like stomach upset, cramping, bloating, vomiting, nauseousness, and/or diarrhea. Sports drinks are typically made up of sugar, either like fructose or glucose and/or maltodextrin and sometimes both all of which have a very high osmolality which is a bad thing. It means that it takes a long time to clear the stomach and that’s why I started using UCAN back in 2014. UCAN has a very low osmolality. It clears the stomach very quickly, therefore it’s very effective at preventing GI distress and for me it cured it pretty much entirely. Back in 2014 prior to that I had done four Ironman events and to that point I was plagued by stomach aches, nausea, bloating. It severely impacted my bike and especially my run later in the race. So in 2014 I was introduced to UCAN by my sports nutritionist and I raced using it for the first time at Ironman Maryland that year. I had no GI distress in that race for the very first time. I ran a 20 minute PR off the bike and finally got to my potential; a 3 flat marathon. I had a 51 minute PR overall and I ended up going 8 hours and 51 minutes and ended up winning the whole race. So it was a mind blowing moment for me in very large part due to avoiding GI distress. It’s something that I never thought I would get the chance to do, to actually break the tape in an Ironman event and it opened my eyes to how important nutrition is.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: So the bottom line is osmolality matters and it’s one of the big reasons why I use UCAN. It’s a great solution for fueling without GI distress.
Andrew: Yep and folks who heard my Ironman Waco experience on the podcast will know that I struggle with some GI distress on the run course as many athletes do and for me on that particular day it was– I mean Coach Joanna was out there racing and she can attest it was a hot day and I was just so freaked out by not wanting to dehydrate that I was just taking all sorts of fluids– Gatorade, Coke, whatever they had at aid stations early on in that race and Matt just like you talked about, I mean I got a lot of that in my system, sloshed around in my stomach and spent a good portion of the second lap of that run course walking until I could work that out. So my experience with that definitely tracks with everything you’re saying there. My personal GI distress that particular day was definitely caused by exactly what you’re talking about. It’s always fascinated me to hear how the science kind of intersects with actual, tangible experience out on the course. So Joanna, anything to add to Matt’s wonderful explanations there to the biology of our bowel movements.
Joanna: I’m learning a lot. Matt’s explanation is very thorough, right on point. I won’t add any other visual descriptions of 1 and 2’s.
Andrew: Awe man.
Joanna: I often remind my athletes that in the stress and excitement of Ironman racing they often forget to think about how often they need to pee. You get caught up in the moment, you’re racing, you realize you’re four hours into the bike, you have yet had any urge to pee. That’s not good. There’s a couple of things I warn them against and that’s one of them. You should have that sensation; that need to pee. Whether it’s an hour or an hour and a half. Having no urge to pee is a sure sign of dehydration, but there’s also the opposite effect and I think that that’s what Matt was referring to. It’s kind of the fear of taking in too much plain water. We all get that urge to want to guzzle plain water when we’re out there and it’s hot. We’ve taken in a lot of sweet, sugary drinks, but we can get ourselves into some serious trouble when it comes to that and the balance of taking in more electrolytes to counter that plain water we take in. It’s just a reminder to coaches out there, when it comes to bowel habits and race day nerves and stress, every athlete reacts very, very differently and I think there’s a big difference in female and male athletes and as to that adrenaline, nervous energy, in combo with the strenuous activity it’s important to have those discussions with athletes very early on in their training.
Andrew: Yeah, absolutely.
Joanna: Get a sense of their GI history. This is a lot of information, but get a sense of their history in their daily activity as well as in their training and racing and how you’re going to plan ahead for them.
Andrew: So we’ll start the ABC, tangible advice portion of the show. Talking about the bread and butter of the triathlon life– day-to-day training. It’s never fun to have a good training session go south because of GI distress. So how can we minimize GI issues and the need for bathroom visits in our day-to-day workouts?
Matt: During high school when I first started running there were too many times when I came back from a run with only one sock on.
Andrew: Why is that Matt? Where’d the other sock go, Matt?
Matt: I’ll let you take a guess.
Joanna: I’m leaving.
Matt: But let alone how the sock was used.
Joanna: I’m leaving now.
Matt: The key that I’ve discovered over the years is that the body is an amazing thing and routine– the body thrives with a routine. So every single day for years I’ve done my #2’s within 15 minutes of waking up and my body is thoroughly conditioned to go at that time.
Andrew: That’s amazing.
Matt: It works the same way if you’re running and you stop to do #2’s. Your body starts getting conditioned almost like Pavlov’s dog, you’ll start to feel the urge to do #2’s during your run if you let your body do #2’s during your run. So don’t do it. I know it’s easier said than done because when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go, right? There are many times when I’ve been like, “Nope. Not happening.” Just squeezing the cheeks and we’re just going to make it home. I’ve coached a lot of athletes. They typically find success in two methods of routine. One, like me, they get their business done first thing in the day and that becomes a routine that the body understands, it knows, and that just keeps happening day after day after day. Then they don’t have to go during a run. And two, they condition their body to go right before their workout. So, like, the body is an amazing thing. The moment you start prepping and thinking about going for your run, it gets your digestive system moving and if that’s what you’re used to and it’s part of your routine then you’ll find that it works that way as well. I coached a high school team and there were about 30 athletes and half the athletes, that was their routine. So one side note here is that if your life needs to be relatively orderly, it has to have a good deal of routine, because if it doesn’t– let’s say you travel a bunch or you go to bed at all different hours, or you workout at all different hours. Sometimes you’re running at 11:00 p.m. or something, then your lack of routine makes it hard for your body to fall into a routine. But for me, routine works really well and it gets me into that rhythm where I can count on it every single day, the timing of when that’s going to happen and when I don’t feel an urge to do that which is during my runs.
Andrew: It’s always been amazing to me, Matt, how– so for you it’s first thing in the morning within 15 minutes that’s when your body is like, “Yep, we’re ready to go! We’re up and we’re ready.” For me it’s always a few hours after waking up and so it’s normally wake up, start doing a little work, have a cup of coffee, eat a light breakfast and then within 30 minutes of that once I’ve been awake for an hour and a half, two hours, instantly– the flip switches and my body is ready to go #1 and 2 frankly. But if that routine gets off and you mentioned some things. You mentioned travel, sometimes if a workload or meetings or what not throw my morning off, if I get to noon, Matt, if it’s noon and I haven’t gotten a chance to go #2 yet, my body just like switches off and it does not happen the rest of the day even though I know I need it. I can feel bloated. I can feel sick. I can feel like, just terrible. I can feel heavy. But if I don’t get it before noon my body is like “Oh we missed our window. You threw out the routine. Way to go champ! We’re not going to let you.” And it’s a terrible feeling. So for me it works out on race morning because race morning I get up and by the time you get down to the race site, you set up transition, you have your last splash of carbs and electrolytes before the race is going to start, I’ve been up for two hours. My body is typically ready to go just before the race so it works out. Yeah, all great stuff Matt. Coach Jo, anything to add here talking about bathroom visits and training?
Joanna: Yeah, I’m glad you talked about that Andrew. I think that what Matt talked about as far as routine is key. I just think in the reality of a lot of the women I coach, a few guys too, being primary care takers for little kids in the morning or all day, sometimes there will be three or four days that you’re not allowed to go to the restroom…
Andrew: Wow.
Joanna: …due to little kids. Then again, like you said, your whole schedule gets thrown off.
Andrew: Yeah.
Joanna: It can turn into major problems, but coffee, caffeine, key to the morning routine, sticking to a nighttime sleep regimen, morning routine that lends itself to easily taking care of business, TCB. That may be our new word on here.
Andrew: TCB!
Joanna: TCB before executing workouts. Sticking to meals that work for you. We all are aware of what works for us and keeps us regular. So maybe it’s not a good idea to try out footlong chili dogs the night before your long run. There are things we’re all aware of, but sometimes we don’t make the best decisions where we need to be a little bit in the planning stages during our Ironman training, choosing the meals that are going to be easiest for us to digest and to keep us on a routine in the morning.
Matt: One thing to add here is that when you’re training in your daily life, fiber is a good thing and you want to be taking in a good amount of fiber. It helps you, you know, stay regular and things like keeping your gut health strong through things like probiotics and all that is great and we’ll touch on it in a bit I think as we talk about race time and the role of fiber and what we’ve learned from Dr. Krista Austin along those lines.
Andrew: When we get to some of the longer training sessions, you know preparing for long course tris, bathroom breaks can become a necessity just due to the duration of the workouts. The potty strategy becomes different whether it’s a long swim, a long bike, or a long run and whether we are training inside or out in the wild. So Matt, Jo, what are the strategies for taking care of business during a long training session?
Matt: For me it’s a catheter.
Andrew: Hey! Hey now.
Matt: I’m just kidding.
Joanna: I’m leaving again.
Matt: No the strategy I just described covers most of it for me as far as the longer training sessions, but I will say here for the record that I won’t pee or poop myself in a training session. I’ll stop and pee and try to pick routes that have reasonable places to do so. I typically won’t have to do #2’s for the reason described a moment ago, but it’s not a bad idea to stuff a bit of toilet paper in a Ziplock bag; some of my training buddies do that, just in case you’re out and about and nature calls.
Andrew: Yep sure.
Matt: At least you’ve got something to wipe with so you don’t have to use a sock like me.
Joanna: As a woman who has carried three massively large boy babies, i.e. 10 pounders, the need to pee is a given daily, hourly, minutely. Yes, I’m making that word up. It’s like I am searching bathrooms out whenever I get to a location. Same as with my training and that is just from years and years of training, knowing where the restrooms are whether at a track, trail, any facility. John Mayfield and I have run many a mile and our first question at any location we are at is “Are the bathrooms unlocked?”
Andrew: Ugh because that happens. Yep. Awe it’s the worst.
Joanna: Swimming I think is a little bit different. That’s a whole strategy to long swims. That’s another thing we need to practice is can we relax enough to pee. We all seem to be able to pee in the wetsuit beforehand due to nerves, but when you’re out in the middle of the long swim whether it’s training session or race day, can you relax enough to pee during the swim which is a good thing to do then we avoid T1 and having to use the restroom during the bike.
Andrew: Yep. No, all great points. If you’re swimming in the pool, obviously, get out of the pool, go to the restroom, return to the pool. Please do not be that adult who thinks it’s okay to just go ahead and pee in that pool no matter how big it is. There’s other people there you’re sharing that water with. But yeah. Open water swim, just let it rip and practice doing so. I know for me the bike rides, as the bike rides got longer you know where you’re Zwifting for three and a half, four, four and a half, five hours or you’re outside riding a bike for that long I would let myself– It’s like at first, I wouldn’t. I would try to mentally be like, “Oh, I need to build mental toughness. I need to just sit here as long as I can.” but I’ve found over time just giving myself a mental break every two hours on those indoor Zwift rides and literally just getting off the bike after two hours, even if I didn’t have to pee super bad. Get off the bike, go pee really quickly, throw on a dry shirt, get back on the bike. It’s a 90 second break and I would just feel so much mentally fresher getting back on the bike that way. That is not going to derail your stamina training for race day whatsoever and it’s just going to help you out. So yeah, great tangible tips from the both of you there.
As we approach race day, we know there are certain things we can do to ensure we have a happy gut leading into the race. You’ve both mentioned fiber already. On our podcast with Dr. Austin, she talks about cutting down our fiber intake heading into race day. What does it look like to actually do that and what other notes do you give your athletes about food approaching a race?
Matt: Definitely. That’s a strategy I began to learn about from my sports nutritionist back in 2014, before I met Dr. Krista Austin and learned more once I met Krista. I recommend getting a good amount of fiber and tend to favor foods like whole grain breads, veggies, brown rice, and things during your regular training and that helps keep everything moving. But in the two days leading into a big race, especially a long race like a 70.3 and Ironman, it helps to essentially stop things up. So I reduce the veggies and opt for things like white bread and white pasta and white rice and it works like a charm and that was all strategy. That was sort of developed and honed through my conversations with Krista over the last several years.
Andrew: So it’s not eliminating veggies. You still want those nutrients, but it’s scaling back on the veggies. It’s switching to less fibrous carbs instead of fibrous carbs. Jo, anything that you tell your athletes differently there or in addition to?
Joanna: Yeah. You know, I agree with Matt. In my own nutritionists that I’ve worked with in that cutting back on fiber, cutting back on high fatty foods race week are things that I do myself. But again, every athlete is very different. It’s important to have those discussions with each athlete. I coach a ton of women. Advising them to cut out fiber may create the opposite problem for them. You know, we want to keep things moving, but we don’t want the train to come to a screeching halt either two days before the race. We don’t want to get into constipation problems. So again, sticking to pre-race meals that have worked for you in the past. I eat the exact same meals for dinner the three days leading up to Ironman. I have always done, I mean to the T; the exact thing. You find something that works for you and that’s what you do and race rehearsals can be excellent opportunities to practice those pre-race meals.
Andrew: Yeah, great point.
Joanna: You know, pre-race foods leading up to your race rehearsals four and two weeks out from a half or a full Ironman, trading those three days before just as if you’re in race week and practicing those meals will ensure that you’re going to have the same reactions. You’re going to avoid GI distress race day when you’ve practiced that plan.
Andrew: The other thing I’ll say there, Jo, for our short course athletes. You know, we just had a couple of podcast episodes come out about racing short course and I’ve been very mindful of if I have sprints coming up, if I have Olympics coming up. For me it’s Saturday, but whatever day of the week your brick session is where you typically have an hour and 25 on the bike followed by a 20 minute run off the bike, that is usually kind of close-ish to the idea of a sprint or Olympic and so I will, Friday night going into that session, Saturday morning going into that session, I will try– that’s kind of my zone to experiment with “Okay, how does this dinner do?” and how I feel in that workout based on that dinner and breakfast is probably how that dinner and breakfast is going to make me feel on a sprint or Olympic short course race. So a lot of threshold and hold Saturday bike rides to kind of practice those things for our short course athletes as well.
So before we talk about the potty logistics of long course racing, I want to talk more about short course. I mean, the preference here is to not need a restroom visit during the race. So what can we do leading up to the race to increase our odds of not needing a mid-race porta potty stop when we race short course?
Joanna: I agree, Andrew, with what you were just talking about. You know, sticking to a pre-race dinner, something that you may have practiced before Saturday threshold brick workout, getting adequate sleep, as well as sticking to your normal breakfast and the timing of the breakfast. You know, not eating 20 minutes before or shoving something in 20 minutes before race start. Making sure that you have practiced what you’re going to take in that morning, and it’s also make sure you allow yourself extra time. This is what I call like the buffer zone. I’ve had to do this for my entire last 20 years of having kids was when I thought it was going to take me this much time before a sprint to get up, get dressed, have my breakfast early enough. That time frame just has always been elongated by 15 to 30 minutes.
Andrew: Okay.
Joanna: That’s what they’re within now just because something always tends to go wrong.
Andrew: Yeah.
Joanna: Or say you think you’re going to be ready to use the restroom at home, maybe that time is now extended. Now allow yourself 15 extra minutes every time you plan for a long training session on a weekend or a race day. Just have that built in buffer time is essential.
Andrew: Yep, Jo, I’m always nervous race morning until I get that pre-race poo and as soon as I have my pre-race poo it just calms me down, it relaxes me, great! And it’s like– my wife and I joke like when you pack for vacation, everybody packs way too much underwear to go on vacation as if we’re going to like poop ourselves like three times a day. So we take all this spare underwear and my body going into a triathlon race–short course, long course, doesn’t matter–my body always responds. It’s never not allowed me to use the restroom before the race, but yet for some reason on race morning I’m always so worried that “Oh, this might be the race where my body is like, nope. We’re not going to give you the urge to go until you’re halfway through the swim.” And it’s never done that. It’s always cooperated, but I love that notion of giving yourself that extra time. Giving yourself an extra 15 to 30 minutes.
So if an athlete finds themselves in a spot though where they just have to go during a short course event– maybe they didn’t have those extra 15 to 30 minutes that we’re talking about. Whatever the reason may be, if someone gets into a short course event, a sprint, an Olympic, duathlon, and they wind up starting the race without having gotten to go before hand, what are your tips for getting in and out as fast as possible during a short course event where you just gotta go?
Joanna: Well, I think everybody knows themselves, but we all know right now that one piece tri suits are all the rage and a lot of companies are now making and athletes are preferring the one piece tri suits over two pieces, but if you have any reservations about needing to use the porta potty during a race, you could about dislocate your shoulder trying to get a one piece suit back on.
Andrew: Especially when they’re wet.
Joanna: When they’re wet and sweaty. You swam in it. I need assistance from somebody to get it over my man shoulders. So if that’s the case then opt for the two piece. There’s nothing wrong in wearing that.
Andrew: Sure.
Joanna: If that’s creating anxiety for you thinking about, “Well what if I have to go to the restroom?” I’m nervous, my stomach is upset. You know it’s fine to wear the two piece. Those are things that are all comfort level for athletes and so I get asked that a tremendous amount. Especially even in long distance racing, people are worried about the porta potties is the half or full distance and am I going to be able to get that one piece down and back up in time? If it’s giving you that much anxiety, wear the two piece.
Andrew: Sure.
Joanna: It’s totally fine. So that’s one thing that a lot of athletes ask me about as far as saving time. Being aware ahead of time, read your athlete guide, know where those porta potties are going to be. It’ll make you feel better to have the knowledge and know that you’re going to have an aid station, whatever it is, every 10 miles on the bike, every mile on the run, but that you’re going to have access to a porta potty. You’ve got enough to be worried about in that race that you don’t need to worry about when you’re going to have an opportunity to use a restroom.
Andrew: Jo, when I raced Challenge Daytona which is now Clash Daytona, the first time I did that race I was on the run course and that is my 70.3 PR at the moment was the first time I did Challenge Daytona. We had just great weather that day. John Mayfield and myself both went like 5:02 that day at 70.3 and I was feeling great on the run, having a great run and I reached I want to say it was mile four and a half or so on the run course and all of a sudden like I had to #2. I had to take care of business.
Joanna: TCB.
Andrew: And the first half of that course, Jo, had several porta potty stops. So I’m on the back side of the NASCAR track at Daytona Motor Speedway…
Joanna: Oh no!
Andrew: …and I’m coming around. So you know because you’ve been there now. When you get dumped back onto the track and there’s turn three, there’s turn four, you go down the front stretch. There’s not a porta potty to be seen on that side of the course. They’re all on the other side of the course for some reason. So I ended up running, I think I was at about mile six and a half to seven miles before I finally got to a porta potty and oh I was so happy to see that porta potty. But yeah, knowing where they are and had I known there wasn’t one somewhere in that half of the track I might have been able to preemptively go to one a little bit sooner. But yeah, great point there Jo. You just spoke to me on several items there, Joanna, because in Ironman Waco I would have saved a tremendous amount of time had I been in a two piece kit.
Joanna: Right.
Andrew: My one piece TriDot kit, I can get that sucker down real easily when I’m dry. I did not think about the fact that on that run course it was going to be a hot day, my coach John Mayfield was saying stay wet, stay wet. I’m dumping water on myself every aid station when I could. That was keeping my core body temperature cool, but I did probably lose 30 to 60 extra seconds every porta potty stop on that run course trying to wrestle that wet top down where if it had been a two piece, I probably could have just whisked that down a little bit easier. So if you think that could be something you’re going to stop and use several times, maybe consider that two piece.
Joanna: I talk to my athletes about that. My whole mantra in talking to them about racing is that we’re trying to find seconds. We’re trying to find minutes on that course. Where can we save time?
Andrew: Yeah.
Joanna: So say that situation comes to you and you’re like, “Oh..” I was going to say oh crap, that’s no pun intended. But it was like, “Oh crap, I’ve got to use the restroom.” and you see a porta potty in sight, get that one piece down to the waist.
Andrew: Umhmm, yeah.
Joanna: There’s no shame in that. You’re going to turn into TO and Sam Long. Get that thing down. No farther than the waist, but get it down to the waist before you get into that restroom. You’re saving time.
Andrew: Yeah, great point.
Joanna: You know, it is hard to get back up, but you’re always trying to be efficient in what you’re doing in every aspect of the race.
Matt: One other thing as far as being quick during these stops, first when you go in there check– if you’re going to be #2s– check to see if there’s toilet paper in there.
Andrew: Yes Matt! Yes!
Matt: If you get in there and there’s no toilet paper, you might find yourself like banging on the door asking somebody to help you out. You might just pull it up and–
Joanna: You might have one sock, Matt. You might have one sock.
Andrew: So every athlete is relieved– I’m going to say that again. They’re relieved when they have a successful and well timed pre-race potty visit. It’s a relatively easy thing to get right, but I know I’ve had plenty of races where I’ve felt a little stress trying to time that restroom visit with start time. You know, the lines, the other tasks you have to do on race morning. How can we make sure that we successfully navigate the pre-race potty experience for a successful transaction?
Matt: Like I mentioned, I typically don’t need the porta potties before the race because I usually do it back at the hotel. I’m able to get my business done back there, but when I do need to use a porta potty before the race, I do a little warmup run down the run course just a bit and find one there. There is little to no line. So everyone else is by transition or the swim start.
Andrew: Awww.
Matt: I probably shouldn’t even be saying this though because now if other people do it then there will be lines at these porta potties.
Joanna: They know your secret.
Andrew: Well, and if you see a line at that porta potty know that the other people in that line are a TriDot podcast listener and they got that pro tip from Matt Bach.
Joanna: I think that’s very smart Matt, and again I always emphasize allowing yourself that extra 15 minutes in case the lines are crazy and it’s the mom in me telling my boys. It’s like I turn into mom at Disney World with my athletes. I’m like, you go try. I don’t care if you feel like you have to go or not. You go. You may only get three drops out, but you’re going to go try.
Andrew: Sure.
Joanna: It’s always like, I’d rather go and just make sure I’m finished, everything is fine, before I start that race. You know and then if it’s getting close to race start time, lines are obscene and we’re dealing with #1 situation, I always advise, and Matt and Andrew you can talk about the male perspective on this, but I always advise my female athletes, they’re like, “Why is Jo going to sit on the grass? What is she doing over there?” and I’m like find grass. If the lines are too long, pee on the grass. You’ll be fine. Just sit down. Nobody know what you’re doing except now, everybody is going to know what I’m doing. I don’t know what guys do in that perspective I know you’ll have to find a more discrete location, but you know…
Andrew: Bushes Jo. It’s always a bush. There’s always a bush somewhere.
Joanna: Bushes, yes. Yeah and it just comes around races. I just had a flashback to like doing the inaugural year of the New Orleans 70.3 and us having to go to the bathroom so bad. Lines– They had like three porta potties total and not a bush in sight. Nothing to hide you. So you get into those situations where you’re just searching out for a place to be discrete.
Matt: Well, one thing that you just reminded me, Coach Jo, when finding grass, that’s the female version. The male version, for me anyway, I went to maybe a length that many others wouldn’t, but take a knee is the strategy.
Andrew: Okay.
Matt: So take a knee. I pretend like I’m tying my shoe. I did this at the beginning of a half marathon a ways back. I really had to go. It was right on the start line. There was people all around me. I took a knee and just pretended like I was tying my shoe and just kind of opened up the bottom of the shorts there and you can do it with tri kit bottoms to and just went down on the ground. So all of a sudden there was a puddle forming which maybe gave me away, but it worked.
Joanna: There’s no shame.
Andrew: Jo, something I’ll add to a great point you made, Joanna, about even if you don’t feel like you have to go, maybe taking the opportunity to get in the line anyway. Often I will get in that line before my body is even– especially if the line is long. If my body has not cued me that it’s time to take care of business I might get in that line anyway knowing that okay the race is starting in 15 minutes and I haven’t gotten to take care of business yet and I’m going to get in this line that is 20 people long and often by the time I get to the front of the line my body has finally– I don’t know if it’s just because it’s seen the bathroom or smelled the bathroom. I don’t know if that’s just a cue or my body just picks up on “oh it’s almost time!” Oftentimes by the time I get to the front of that long line, my body is ready and I’m able to take care of business. So that’s another thing I’ve done several times at all distances of races.
With the middle, full, and ultra distance triathlon, there’s always the joke that wetsuit strippers have the most unsavory job knowing there is a fair to descent chance that some of those wetsuits have been peed in before or during the swim leg. So at these distances is there a swim leg opportunity to release a little fluid and if so what are the best practices for doing so?
Matt: My advise, take a note from Elsa and let it go!
Andrew: Yeah. This is a man who has seen Frozen a few times.
Matt: Oh yes. Again, a four and a four year old. We’ve seen that movie many, many times. The wetsuit is a great place to go since the water around you will wash away most of it quickly. You don’t have to feel bad about it. You’re in a huge lake. I’d rather go in my wetsuit than on the bike.
Andrew: Sure.
Matt: That’s one thing that I– a point of consideration. Especially if it’s cold water, the pee warms you up and it feels great.
Joanna: Yes to all of the above. Peeing in our wetsuits provides warmth, calms nerves, eliminates the need to go in T1 and on the bike, but again that’s easier said than done. My athletes often ask me how do you relax enough in the water, open water swim to pee? Some of the tips I give them, I find success in doing a little bit of breast stroke sometimes.
Andrew: Yeah.
Joanna: Stop kicking, relax enough. If all else fails think about running water, all the things you tell kids to go to the restroom. Getting it done in the open water is nice that way the moment you step onto ground it seems like you feel like you have to pee if you haven’t done so in the water.
Andrew: The 30 seconds that you let up from your freestyle stroke to breast stroke to take care of business there in the water that’s going to save you at least double that time…
Joanna: Right.
Andrew: …by not having to step inside a porta potty during T1 and go pee. So yeah, great point there. Now the bike leg of any distance is the longest part of the race and the longer you’re out there the more time there is to need a bathroom, and the more time you can save by being efficient with your bathroom breaks. So you can save time by holding it. You can save the time by peeing on the bike while you’re riding or you can lose a little time and stop for any needed nature break. What approach would y’all advise our listeners to take?
Matt: If you’re just trying to finish and you’re not cutting it too close to the cutoff, then stop if you’re more comfortable doing that. If you’re hunting for a PR, a Kona qualification spot, a podium spot, something that could just be seconds of a minute or two or something separating you from your goal, then I would suggest learning to do #1s during any of the three legs of the race. Some will even do #2s during the race to safe time.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: A couple stories on that. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that, but. I had a friend, I’m not going to name any names, but he was hunting a Kona slot during the run and was in position to do so and there was just a couple of minutes between him and the guy behind him who was trying to take his slot away. Trying to run him down. He really had to go #2s. It was something like mile 18 or 19 of the run, the marathon leg, and he decided to just do it in his tri suit. Some may think that that’s heroic, others may think it's just flat out disgusting, but he did get his Kona slot. A funny addendum to that, he ended up in the med tent afterwards and had to tell the medical staff you should avoid this area as he gestured to that area of his body.
Andrew: I’ve never heard pooping in your tri suit referred to as heroic before, but yeah. I suppose if you’re gunning for that Kona slot then, yeah that could be perceived as a heroic move.
Matt: I think only triathletes may consider that to be heroic. nobody else on this planet.
Joanna: Normal people would think we are of our own breed if we’re even having this conversation.
Matt: Right. I’ve got another quick story I just want too. A female friend of mine who was hunting a Kona slot during the run, also in position to do so. She really had to do #2. She tried to stop at a porta potty for a really quick stop, but it was occupied with a line. So she wouldn’t have it. So she went behind the porta potty, dropped trow and did it right there. I don’t think I would recommend that as a course of action, but she also got her Kona slot.
Andrew: And you could say that was equally heroic depending on your view there. So Jo, what do you say to athletes when it comes to using the bathroom during the bike?
Joanna: When it comes to peeing on the bike I’m going to plead the fifth on this question. I have to let our listeners know though that it is a penalty officially to pee outside a designated porta potty during a race.
Andrew: Yes it is.
Joanna: So you’re going to have to weigh the risk of that. I don’t advise my athletes about peeing on the bike unless they ask me questions. It is a skill that takes practice. I remember many, many years ago going out on a country road by myself and telling myself I couldn’t go home until I put my big girl pants on and learned to pee on the bike. So it is a matter of one leg down, one leg up. I’m not sure for guys, I just know how this works for girls. Lifting up and relaxing enough to be able to pee. This is definitely depending on your goals. If you are destined to save time, not stopping in the bike during a race it is a skill that you’re going to see a lot of people do, but please be courteous and look behind you.
Andrew: Yeah.
Joanna: Make sure you don’t have somebody right behind you. That makes for a pretty bad race experience to be– I’m not going to lie, I’ve been peed on. I’ve been loogied on. It’s all par for the course, but it definitely makes for an unpleasant day.
Andrew: It’s all part of the Ironman experience Jo. That’s all. But yeah, please be courteous. For guys I imagine it’s a little simpler, but I know Coach Jeff Raines talks quite a bit about how it’s easier to do when you’re going downhill so you can stop pedaling and not have to worry about keeping that momentum going. It’s great to do it right before or right after an aid station where you have some fresh water to kind of clean yourself off with as you’re going. I personally at Ironman Waco, I decided to stop and get off the bike. Actually, unexpectedly they had some bike racks right by the bathroom breaks so it was pretty easy to just quickly rack your bike, do your thing, and get back to it. I probably just lost a minute or two per stop and in my position and my competitive level being in the middle of the pack I was willing to do that to be comfortable and not have to worry about the logistics of peeing on the bike. But if you’re in a qualifying spot, definitely something that is worth practicing and figuring out. Is it worth the calculated risk of potentially picking up that time penalty or not and to go from there.
Matt: That’s a good point about the potential penalty. It is technically not something you’re supposed to do. A lot of people do it. Most people don’t get caught. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anybody actually getting caught doing it. It’s kind of a hard thing to catch somebody doing, but I am glad that you guys mentioned that. As far as guys are concerned, there’s a couple of tips I’ve got. One is that if you’re a guy you’ve got to lift up a little bit. I remember the first time I tried to pee on the bike, I pushed and nothing came out. I was confused and then I lifted up my tush a little bit and boom. And action. It was like “Oh, okay. I’m pinching.” and I didn’t even know. So remember that if you’re trying and it’s just not working for some reason, try just lifting up the tush a little and maybe it’ll flow. Another one is on the downhill. There’s one reason which is you don’t have to be pedaling, but you’re still going to be going fast, but the other thing is that because you’re going faster, the pee instead of it just going down your leg and into your shoe and socks if you’re wearing them, it’ll just go out and kind of spray out the back of the bike a little bit more so it will keep you a little bit drier so you don’t have quite as much urine in your bike shoes.
Andrew: Thankfully on the run it’s much easier to jump into a porta potty when you need to go, but even still you can lose some serious time if your gut is acting up or if you aren’t efficient in there. So when you prep your athletes for the run course, what all do you go over in terms of gut issues and potty visits?
Matt: One of the things I mention is don’t have too much sugar and sort of front load the bike so that you have most of your nutrition taken in then, especially with UCAN because it lasts for multiple hours after you take it. You can actually kind of front load the race by having it during the bike so that way during the run you don’t have to have as much. So as far as like the number of calories per hour, I take in maybe half of that during the run as I do the bike in terms of an amount per hour. So don’t have too much sugar especially. Make sure you’re drinking enough fluids. At that point in the race you’re dehydrated and the dehydration means that whatever it is you are drinking, if it’s sugary, it’s going to be more concentrated in your stomach so then you could end up having that GI distress and stomach aches and all sorts of diarrhea and bad things that happen. Fluids are very important for giving your body what it needs to digest calories and avoid GI problems. I’ve got a story.
Andrew: Ooo. Do tell.
Matt: So, I pee during the run, just like while running, and it takes some practice to overcome your brain telling you that that’s not okay. But, you’ve grown up your whole life you’re told don’t do that and when you’re young and you’re potty training and you’re not supposed to do that. So you’ve got to kind of override it.
Joanna: Unless you’ve had three children, then you can pee very easily.
Matt: But I got there. I got to that point where I was able to do it and I do it regularly during races. At Ironman Lake Placid one year I got to the run, had to pee at around mile six. My shoes and socks were so nice and dry and I didn’t want to get them all wet yet, so wet socks and shoes it means heavy feet, it means blisters. I had nothing better to think about because Ironman and…
Andrew: Sure.
Matt: …so I though, how could I get it done without stopping and without getting my shoes wet? So I’m running down River Road where all the houses are set back and if anybody’s been to Lake Placid, there’s no spectators really down there. I was far up enough in the field that there weren’t too many people around me so I looked ahead and there was somebody like a couple hundred meters ahead. Obviously their back was turned to me and they were running along. I looked behind me and there was nobody there, so I did what any normal human being would do. I pulled down my tri kit bottoms and I just peed mid-flight.
Andrew: Alright.
Matt: Yeah. Success! Success. So my shoes stayed dry, I was relieved, and now a handful of miles later I’m heading back on River Road and there’s a whole bunch of people around me so I can’t do that same strategy. So instead I came up with a new one. I noticed that I had dry sponges in my kit, so I grabbed one, I held it near my crotch and I peed. How wonderful, right? Sweet relief and I have dry socks and shoes. So one more–
Andrew: So the sponge absorbed it all, huh?
Matt: Not all of it, but enough of it that it didn’t just come running down my leg into my shoe.
Joanna: I was going to say, now I’m having this horrific thought of Matt and these sponges and if you were in that inaugural year, like ten years ago of New Orleans 70.3, they ran out of fluids on the run…
Andrew: Oh no.
Joanna: And me and my two training partners proceeded to pick up sponges and drink out of them.
Matt: Oh no.
Andrew: Wow!
Matt: Yes, that would have been very bad. But get this though. This is the end of the story. When I came up to the next aid station I just threw it out in a trash can and yeah that was great and I did it a couple more times. One time though I threw it in a trash can and then as I was running by the trash can that I just threw my piss laden sponge into I realized it was not a trash can. It was not for trash. Like it was full of fresh sponges sitting in ice water. I felt terrible.
Andrew: So somebody inevitably picked that up and used it and they were expecting–
Matt: They very likely could have held that above their head, tipped their head back, and drank the water out of that.
Andrew: It’s a gross sport people. It’s a gross sport all the way around no matter how you look at it. I feel like a priest taking Matt’s confession right now. Just all of his triathlon sins from over the years on course. But Matt, to your point. I’ve heard a lot of ultra trail runners you know that run 100 mile trail races both male and female talk about kind of figuring out, learning, and practicing how to pee as you’re running. So again, that is not legal at an Ironman or USAT sanctioned race, but if you’re in a position where you’re looking around, there’s no one around, and you’re trying to save that time to qualify for something, it certainly can be done like Matt has done. So last question here guys before we shut down the main set on the ABC’s of #1 and #2. I still remember very, very well a moment by the Brazos River on the run course for Ironman Waco. I had just started loop three of the run and I was approaching a row of porta potties that were actually located by the swim start and so they had been used all morning before the swim and then more during the run. So apparently of the 20-ish, 30-ish porta potties sitting there in a row, only two still had toilet paper. Now those two, they were bigger gray units and the rest of them were kind of standard dark green units. So I had no way of knowing that the two gray units in the middle were the only ones with toilet paper. But as I’m approaching this row of porta potties an athlete leaving one of the gray ones yells over at me, “Only the gray ones have toilet paper!” And that act of kindness undoubtedly saved me the time as I didn’t have to search myself porta potty by porta potty trying to find the one with toilet paper. So as I left that gray porta potty having taken care of business I paid it forward by telling the next athlete coming towards those potties that those were the only ones with toilet paper. So I think of that story, I think Matt of trying to throw away your pee-laden sponge instead of putting it in with the fresh ones. There’s all sorts of examples of ways that we can be considerate of our fellow racers when it comes to using the bathroom on course. Are there any other tips or tricks or things we need to be aware of to be a good citizen on course and be considerate of our other racers when it comes to using the bathroom mid race?
Matt: Absolutely. For instance, guys when you’re in there, use that urinal. If there isn’t a urinal, don’t just pee all over the seat. Then somebody–
Joanna: Thank you!
Matt: –who comes in next time they’ve got to like wipe that whole thing down. It’s just terrible.
Matt: Yep. Great one.
Joanna: Thank you! Appreciate that.
Andrew: Yeah, great one.
Joanna: I think that lends itself to all of racing itself, not just to the porta potties. I know that I tend to have my best races as I am in caretaking mode and considerate of all of those around me in that if you see people struggling, if you see someone in bad shape, if you see someone dehydrated or having GI issues, I’m one to always care a mini med cabinet in my belt offering up Imodium or salt stick or something to a fellow racer. It’s often when you are thinking beyond yourself. I always tell my athletes right before they race, “Be bigger than yourself today.” Be bigger today. Help others and that motto it always makes for great race days.
Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.
Andrew: The tridot.com website started the year 2022 with a makeover. It has a totally new design and looks pretty cool in my humble opinion, not that I designed it or anything because I didn’t, and right on the home pace in big, bold letters we have a new slogan of sorts and Matt while I had you on the podcast today I wanted to take our cooldown and have you talk about what that slogan means to us for athletes. So Matt, tell us what our home page says and tell us how the TriDot marketing team landed on that slogan for our website home page.
Matt: Yeah, happy to. The slogan is “It’s your time!” and one reason why we love it and landed on it is that it has multiple meanings. It’s your time it could pertain to your race time and getting faster. It’s related to your performance. TriDot generates over three times as much improvement as alternatives like self-written plans or coach-written plans. It could have another meaning. It’s your time, use it wisely. So use your training time effectively and efficiently. So for any listeners who don’t know, TriDot training requires 30% fewer training hours on average than alternative training plans. So if you combine that greater improvement with fewer training hours you have the slogan that’s directly underneath the image which is “Better results in less time.” and that’s something you’ve heard us say for years. Another meaning is spend more time in ways, with things that are also important to you like time with your family, time with your kids, time spent on your career or on other hobbies. Most triathletes I know don’t have other hobbies, but maybe you could pick one up because you could be saving yourself some time by training efficiently using TriDot. Maybe it’s sleep. Like I mentioned earlier, my word for– Oh, what did we call it? Tridle?
Andrew: Tridle. Yeah Tridle.
Matt: Yeah so for Tridle, sleep. It’s your number one performance enhancing method. Another meaning, it’s your time to be in the spotlight. It’s your time to shine. It’s your time to finish your first Ironman. It’s your time to finish your first triathlon, to be fitter, or healthier than you’ve ever been. Whatever it is that you’re aspiring to and however you define success, let “It’s your time” speak to you the way that it speaks to you.
Andrew: Yeah I love that.
Matt: One side note here too. We considered “It’s about time.” I think we’ve actually used that just a little bit in the past, but “It’s about time” we like “It’s your time.” better because it evokes more emotion, more of the aspiration. It feels more powerful and personal. So I love it for a number of reasons.
Andrew: Jo, as a TriDot coach, you are working with a great roster of athletes throughout the year. When you think about the athletes you coach, you think about their goals, their dreams, the day-to-day work they are putting in, the time that they are investing towards those goals. What comes to mind for you when you think of your athletes and hear “It’s your time.”
Joanna: Well Andrew, I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about this and how I think “It’s your time” plays into training, hobbies, life, family and I think “It’s your time” can hold many different meanings. Recently I’ve suffered probably the biggest injury I’ve ever had in training just in perfect timing for double World Championships…
Andrew: Sure. Yeah.
Joanna: …and knowing that I’ve waited so many years to realize these dreams I’ve been posting in recent months that this was my year. This was my time, but I think overall when I think about it, we don’t know what is planned for us and “it’s your time” can reflect on racing or training or life itself. Maybe it’s your time to refocus, step back. Maybe it’s your time to figure out what’s right for you right now. Maybe it’s your time to take care time for yourself instead of others. I think about that when I talk with some of the moms I coach and tell them it’s okay. It’s okay for you to have your time. It’s okay for you to…
Andrew: Yeah.
Joanna: …not always be selfless and to always sacrifice. You are allowed your time. You know, it’s your time can mean something else. I think of it in the terms of your as in the possessive you own it, you have a choice. What do you want to do with your time? Do you want to do something amazing, scarry, brave? Don’t sit on the sidelines. I tell my kids and my athletes that the days that require the most bravery and the most fight will be the greatest and most memorable days of your life. So it is your time and what do you want to do with it? What do you want to remember from this time? Then I go always to “fight, girl fight.” “Fight, dude fight.”
Matt: Love it.
Andrew: Well that’s it for today folks. I want to thank Matt Bach and Coach Joanna Nami for all the potty talk today. ‘Twas delightful hearing all those bathroom nuggets. Shoutout to Precision Fuel and Hydration for partnering with us on today’s episode. Remember that you can go to Precisionfuelandhydration.com and you can use their free sweat test, their free quick carb calculator, and you can book a free one-on-one video consultation with a member of their team. Then use code TRIDOT10 at the checkout when you make your purchase. Enjoying the podcast? Have any triathlon questions or topics you want to hear us talk about? Head to tridot.com/podcast and let us know what you’re thinking. We’ll have a new show coming your way soon. Until then, Happy Training!
Outro: Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast with your triathlon crew. For more great tri content and community, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head to TriDot.com and start your free trial today! TriDot – the obvious and automatic choice for triathlon training.