Join coaches John Mayfield, Elizabeth James, Jeff Raines, Joanna Nami, and host Andrew Harley, as they reflect on some of their favorite TriDot Podcast episodes from the past year. Revisit the year's top coaching tips, highlights from key episodes, and special moments with guests of the show. Whether you're a first-time listener or long-time subscriber, there's a piece of advice in here for you! Find out which episodes the coaches say deserve a second listen! A big thanks to UCAN for being a long time partner of the podcast! At TriDot we are huge believers in using UCAN to fuel our training and racing. To experience UCAN’s LIVSTEADY products for yourself, head to their website UCAN.co! Use the code “TriDot” to save 20 percent on your entire order. Join the TriDot Crew at CLASH Miami in March! Use code TRIDOTMIAMI for 10% off any event! Register now at https://clash-usa.com/clash-miami. Also, be sure to check out the camping options so that you can join the TriDot party INSIDE of Homestead-Miami Speedway. Participate in triathlon research! The Preseason Project® is a triathlon research initiative that helps us quantify and enhance the performance gains that TriDot’s Optimized Training™ delivers over training alternatives. Qualified participants receive 2 free months of triathlon training. Learn more and apply at: https://psp.tridot.com/psp23pod/
TriDot Podcast .170
The TriDot Podcast’s Best Of 2022
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: Hey everyone! Thanks so much for tuning in today. As the year 2022 comes to a close, I’m not gonna lie: it’s pretty wild to think back to all the years that I was a triathlete without the TriDot podcast. It feels like a long time ago, three years of podcasting now. This is Episode .170, and it’s just wild that this is a thing that we’re doing. We’re so grateful, the whole team at TriDot, for everyone who listens in and connects with us, and I’m thankful for all the coaches and experts who come on the show to make us better and smarter triathletes. We like to end the year reflecting on our year in podcasting. I’ve asked several of our podcast regulars to come to the table with two episodes from this calendar year that they want to highlight as a Best of 2022. They’ll tell us why they picked the episode that they picked, we’ll play a clip from that episode, then we’ll move on to the next one. There are five of us on the show today, with a few special appearances by some bonus TriDot staff members, so I’ll keep the introductions brief today. With me on the live recording are TriDot Director of Coaching John Mayfield; TriDot Pool School Director, Joanna Nami; pro triathlete and TriDot coach Elizabeth James; and TriDot coach and biomechanics expert Jeff Raines. Hey there, John!
John Mayfield: Hey guys! Wrapping up another amazing year!
Andrew: Hey Elizabeth!
Elizabeth James: Hello!
Andrew: Hey Jeff!
Jeff Raines: Hey Drewski! Man, what a year it’s been!
Andrew: Hello Jo!
Joanna Nami: Hey Andrew, thanks for having me!
Andrew: I'm Andrew the Average Triathlete, Voice of the People and Captain of the Middle of the Pack. As always we'll roll through our warmup question, settle in for our Best of 2022 main set, and then wind things down with our cooldown. On the cooldown today, Vanessa will be interviewing the TriDot athlete who racked up the most Ponicorn bonuses in the TriDot app during the year 2022. So I guess you could say she is crowning the first-ever TriDot Unicorn Champion of the Year, and I for one cannot wait to find out who it is. Lots of good stuff, let’s get to it!
Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.
Andrew: As we look back on our year in podcasting, let’s also look back on our year in racing as well. As our end‑of-the-season warmup question, what was your favorite moment from the 2022 race season? Now this can be from a day that you raced, it can be from supporting someone else who was racing, it can be from watching the pros as they were racing. It can even be from a race report that you read on the I AM TriDot Facebook group. Just overall from the year 2022, what was your favorite race moment? Jeff Raines?
Jeff: You know me, I’m not going to pick just one, so here we go. IRONMAN California was my “Team Raines” team event, and so many of us were out there. Gosh, there were 60 or 70 TriDotters there, but I had nine of my athletes out there racing alongside me. With the cancellation of 2021, it was just a big redemption year for many. That was just an amazing comeback story and race weekend. I have to give a plug to our Ambassador Camp in St. George. What I loved about that one is that we had the camp all week, and then we stayed and cheered on and had a number of TriDotters out there racing the World Championships. The campers all stayed to volunteer, and we were largely in charge of T1. It was so great just seeing the TriDot community come together. We all gave back to the sport, volunteering side-by-side, and working the transition change tent at the World Championship was just amazing, seeing TriDot all work together at the end of a fun camp week. Then selfishly, as a race, my favorite moment was Daytona fairly recently, and leap-frogging John Mayfield on the bike. Man, I had a blast out there with you, buddy. That was so fun, just moving up the rankings and passing people left and right and working together – legally, I must say. Man, John, you and I have had lots of moments throughout the years, but that one was probably one my favorites. Good job out there, buddy.
John: That was a good one.
Andrew: And it wasn’t just the two of you, we can’t leave out our third party, Ben Guevara, who was also a part of that little TriDot leap-frogging at Daytona riding with you guys, is that correct?
Jeff: Yeah, Jerry Duggan was close by too. It was fun, it was amazing.
John: Kyle Stone was right behind us. We had several all there. Every time we’d U‑turn, we’d see our whole crew there together, that was a lot of fun.
Andrew: See, that’s what happens when you get a lot of TriDotters on the same course on the same day, lots of fun. Elizabeth James, what is this answer for you, 2022 race season favorite moment?
Elizabeth: Yeah, speaking of having a lot of TriDot members together, for my own personal racing, it was IRONMAN Des Moines. I got to race with two other women from my local bible study group, there was a point where John and I were running together on the course, which was awesome, and we had Jo and Corey cheering us on, so that was really special for me. Then just thinking back to all the incredible finishes that there were this year in racing, one of my favorite moments was 70.3 Oceanside, where you had Lionel Sanders and Rudy von Berg and that sprint for the second-place finish. To me, it is still just absolutely amazing that, after 70-plus miles of racing, it came down to milliseconds between their finish.
Andrew: I remember that one for sure, a photo finish. There were a lot of those in triathlon this year, and I feel like Lionel Sanders was a part of at least 80% of them. Yes, that was a really, really good one from the pro field. John Mayfield, what is this answer for you?
John: Tough to pick, because there’s just so many. As I already mentioned, my time on course with Elizabeth and Jeff, but one highlight is certainly the return of the World Championship to Kona. It was great to be there, being set up at Kai Eats right there along Ali’i Drive. With everything going on in the days leading into the race, having the privilege to be a guest of Mark Allen in Kona was just surreal. Hanging out with him all over the place, being introduced to the Who’s Who, that was really something unique and special. Then to have the race-day experience as well, to be out there supporting Jo and everyone else – I had a bike, so I was able to go out onto the Queen K and be with her for those last couple miles – that was certainly special, along with a whole bunch of other stuff that week and a whole bunch of other stuff all season long.
Andrew: Coach Jo, you did several races this year, several BIG races. From all of it, what is your favorite race moment from the year 2022?
Joanna: This is tough, Andrew. Probably recording a podcast in a mini trailer, sticking to vinyl seats in the RV park in Daytona had to rank way high up there.
Andrew: Has to be a highlight, absolutely!
Joanna: Had to be a highlight. But as John said, I can’t wrap my head around everything that happened in Kona. I do know that the last eight miles of run/walking with Kyle and Terry Stone, who are super-close friends, training partners, and having John on the bike around us, I don’t know how something worked out that well. To have that last couple of miles was pretty crazy. Then I’ll have to say, I have to keep rewatching the video, but to qualify by time in Arizona with the people that I care and love about all around me, that has got to be one of the best moments of my life, that was just an incredible moment.
Andrew: Real simple answer here for me on this one: there’s a lot of good moments I would like to go with, but you can’t top your first trip to Kona. That morning that we spent, Thursday when the female pros were racing, a lot of TriDotters were out there racing. And like John mentioned, thanks to our good friend Mark Allen we had some VIP passes for the day, so we got to watch the swim start in Kona on Thursday from the pier. I’ve always watched the Kona live feed every single year, but to be there in person for the first time, right there at the swim start, hearing the cannons go off and the drums beating and watching the female pros get going, and watching all the different age‑groupers get going, that was just a really cool morning, a really special morning, and one that I definitely won’t ever forget.
All right, we’re going to throw this question out to you, because I know in the TriDot audience, our I AM TriDot Facebook group, you guys and gals did so much awesome things out on the race course this year. I can’t wait to hear what moment you want to share as your favorite moment from the race course in 2022. So find the post asking you what is your favorite race moment of the year. We can’t wait to see what you have to say!
Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…
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All right, let’s get to the good stuff today! I am very excited to see which episodes from this year our coaches have selected to be the official TriDot Podcast Best of 2022. I’ve got my two nominations, and let’s find out what episodes our coaches have selected. Coach Jo, why don’t you kick us off here, what is your very first Best of 2022 episode?
Joanna: Yes Andrew, I was thinking back on this a lot, one of my favorites was an episode that John and I recorded with you on anxiety in racing, Episode .140. And it turned out to be much more than just anxiety in racing, but anxiety in daily life, in prepping for major life events, and how we prepare ourselves. We spend so much time in focusing on the physical, and nutrition, and every aspect of these long endurance events, but we don’t spend a lot of time prepping ourselves for how we’re going to feel in the days leading up to race day itself. Then after the race, there’s a tremendous amount of anxiety that surrounds these major triathlon events. So I really enjoyed recording that with John so that we could share with athletes the how-to’s and what do we do, and how do we prepare ourselves to deal with those feelings, and our go-to’s in those situations.
Andrew: Is it normal to have some pre‑race jitters, or is that something that goes away over time? What percentage of the field at any given race is standing there on the edge of the water feeling nervous?
Joanna: I would have to say it’s near 100%. I think it’s totally normal. The fear of the unknown, something very strenuous you’re about to take on, especially in a half or full IRONMAN. Always the what-if’s: “Can I do this? What if I can’t do this? What if this happens?” I’m still mega-nervous when I start, but the one line I say to my athletes over and over again is, “There is a fine line between anxiety and excitement, and what are you going to choose today? You can choose to be anxious, or we can frame that as excitement.” That’s just a flip of negative versus positive. Instead of saying, “I’m really nervous, I’m really scared,” can we say, “Let’s push that away.” Like I say to my kids, “Let’s put those negative thoughts in a bubble and blow that away. Positive thoughts, and we’re going to frame this as excitement.” I would say that’s probably still on the table for every athlete that toes the line, and it’s very normal.
John: The nerves are proof that you’re still invested. Really, when we go out and do these things, we’re taking on risk. We’re risking discomfort and pain, we’re risking failure. A lot of it is self-imposed. We have these self-imposed expectations that we may or may not meet, and there’s no guarantee, regardless of how well prepared we are. I think when you can consistently get to the start line and not be nervous, either you’re not setting ambitious enough goals, you’re not taking on enough risk, or maybe it’s just time to get out. Because you’re just going through the motions, and this sport is too expensive, too time-consuming to just go through the motions. I’ve had those races, there are some that are higher-priority than others. Some races are more just fun, and others are very serious: “I have one single goal here, this is going to be success or failure.” So again, the priority of the race is going to dictate how much anxiety or how nervous we are before those, but there should be something there. There should be some butterflies. If the butterflies aren’t there, then you’re probably not there either.
Elizabeth: As someone that is still very much working on my race-day anxiety and just everyday life anxiety, this episode was absolutely great. There are some fantastic takeaways here for everyone to consider and practice for their next event. I’ve been working with a sports psychologist on that self-imposed pressure, and I love what both John and Jo said about the nerves. They’re there, and that’s okay. It’s okay to have those butterflies, and one of the things that I have been thinking about now is, when those butterflies come it’s like, “All right, I acknowledge that they’re there, now let’s have those butterflies fly in formation and use that as a positive during the day.”
Andrew: Coach John Mayfield, what is our second Best of 2022 episode for today?
John: So, I believe it MAY be a Best of All Time. It is Episode .133, the ABC’s of #1’s and #2’s. This one for me has a fun origin story.
Andrew: The potty-cast!
John: The potty-cast was conceived on a road trip. It was five triathletes in a not-real-big car, and of course we all had our stories. The clip I picked I think was the best story, it was Matt sharing his story from racing in Lake Placid.
Matt Bach: I noticed that I had dry sponges in my kit, so I grabbed one, held it near my crotch, and I peed. How wonderful, sweet relief, AND I had dry socks and shoes. What more could anybody want?
Andrew: So the sponge absorbed it all, huh?
Matt: Not all of it, but enough of it that it didn’t just go down my leg into my shoe.
Joanna: I was going to say, now I’m having this horrific thought of Matt and these sponges. During that inaugural year of New Orleans 70.3, ten years ago, they ran out of fluids on the run. In the end, my two training partners proceeded to pick up sponges and drink out of them.
Matt: Oh no. 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 the trash can. That was great and I did it a couple more times. One time though, I threw it in the 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. It was full of fresh sponges, sitting in ice water. I felt terrible.
Andrew: So somebody inevitably picked that up and used it.
Matt: They very likely could have held it 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 the triathlon sins from over the years.
Joanna: I’m still gigging over here over this clip. I can’t get over it. I think the funnier thing is that if I sat and listed out all my achievements in triathlon over 15, 16 years, nothing compares to the amount of comments I get from people regarding this silly podcast on 1's and 2's. But I have to laugh, because I think that all of us would agree, as you coach year after year after year, that’s the true nuts and bolts of coaching. You’re going to get questions about long-course IRONMAN racing, and you’ve got to be able to tell your athletes. You will get some VERY interesting questions about using the restroom on IRONMAN days, and you’ve got to be ready to have some very creative answers. Obviously Matt Bach was very creative in his use of sponges, though it still very much grosses me out.
Andrew: Coach Jeff Raines, what is our third Best of 2022 podcast episode?
Jeff: I’m going way back to EARLY 2022. It might have been the first episode of 2022, if I’m not mistaken, but it is Episode .119, and it is “19 Tips to Transform Your Triathlon Training”. This is the season of goal-setting. We’re closing the chapter of 2022, we’re starting a new chapter of 2023. This is the season of goal-setting, and this clip here really just sets things up for all of us at this current season of the year. So it’s good to reflect on what you did well last year, what you’re going to change, what you’re going to do different. Maybe you’re going to spend more months or weeks in this precious developmental phase, setting up your 2023 season. Maybe not quite as many A races, prioritizing those B and C races a little bit better. This episode really just reiterates what TriDot is. It’s our “fast before far, strong before long”, and it needs to be revisited this time of year. So I thought it was a perfect choice.
Andrew: Elizabeth James, what is Triathlon Training Tip #3?
Elizabeth: Tip #3 is don’t sabotage your training with too much or improperly-timed racing. This is another thing that we’ve talked about before, with planning your season and making sure that you don’t miss the opportunity to build your strength and speed before adding the stamina. It’s that “strong before long, fast before far”. I mean, racing is fun, I love racing. But having a purposefully planned season can allow you to get stronger and then have better results when you do race. So maybe consider adding some shorter-distance races, or lower-priority races to really help you prepare for the main goals of the season. I think this is another great one that we’re bringing up here in the first part of the year. As people are still looking ahead to what their season is going to be and what that would look like, definitely put down those A races first on your plan. Put those into your season planner, and then see how other events might support your development toward those events. But don’t just put a whole bunch of random things on your calendar and expect that that is going to get you your best results for your last event of the year.
John: I think this is super timely in that, as Elizabeth mentioned, early in the year, or even here we are late in the year, so there’s even more time to plan. I actually spent some time yesterday planning my 2023 season, and it’s a bit of a doozy, just because I’ve got everything going on. That episode talks a lot about planning, and your training phases, and how one race is going to interact with another, which obviously is a critical component to your season planning. Yesterday when I was looking at my season and my races, something I had to really take into consideration is my work schedule and my family schedule. I spend a lot of time on the road traveling for work, which can interfere with the training and racing, and then I’ve got three kids. My daughter’s going to be starting college in the fall, then I have two more that are in high school that are involved in all sorts of stuff. So I created three columns, and it was my races, my known work events, and my known family events, and I did my best to reconcile all three. That was something I was doing in addition to planning out the way the phases will fall, how the races will interact with one another. This allowed me to take into consideration those work constraints and family constraints as well.
Andrew: Nice stuff, John, that’s a well-done calendar right there. I kind of want to take a peek at that and see what John Mayfield’s 2023 is going to shape up to look like.
Jeff: Yeah, shoot that over to me too, man!
John: It’s top secret.
Andrew: Okay, Elizabeth James, what is our fourth Best of 2022 episode?
Elizabeth: Our next episode is No. .154, which was “Last Call: Mike’s Legacy Behind the Mike.” So this year we had Mike Reilly, the Voice of IRONMAN, on the podcast, and it was just a fascinating look into the man behind the mike. To me, this interview felt just like he was one of our own staff members, in the way that he connects with triathletes of all levels, and truly just gets so much joy out of seeing others’ success. So many athletes have longed to hear the words, “You ARE an IRONMAN!” as the finale of their journey to the finish line. Those words mean so much to them, and here in the episode, and this clip specifically, Mike talks about the origin of those famed words.
Mike Reilly: I got a message from Dan Trone yesterday. Dan said, “Mike, we are forever connected.” I go, “Yeah we are, buddy.” In 1989 when I was in Kona for the first time, I never said that. 1990 I never said it, never thought about “creating a phrase”, like when a baseball guy goes, “It’s gone!” or whatever. A phrase. I would just say, “Congratulations, great job! You look fantastic!” at the finish line. Then in ’91, my buddy Dan Trone was there. He was a San Diego guy, I’d run with him at Mission Bay. He did the race in ’90, and didn’t have a great day. In ’91, I’d see him on Ali’i Drive and he goes, “I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know.” He’s all nervous, and I’m going, “Dude, you’re a heck of an athlete, what do you mean?” “I don’t know, it’s just not there.” He was really kind of down. I go, “Don’t worry, you’ll be okay.” He was, “Alright.” So I saw him the day before the race checking the bike in and I go, “How you doing?” He goes, “I don’t know. I know you told me I’d be okay, but I don’t know. I feel a little better, but I don’t know.” He started to depress me! Finally I go, “Dan, don’t worry, you’ll be an IRONMAN! You’ll get it done!” So he goes in, “Alright, alright,” and I forgot about it. The next day, I didn’t know where people were on the course because there’s no spotting, our spotting was all manual. I’d get phone calls from the pay phones out on the course, “Mike, so‑and-so just went by Mile 80.” That’s how we got our information back then. And it was about maybe 10, 11 hours into the race and I thought about Dan, “I wonder how he’s doing?” Well, a little while later there he is. Remember, I’m spotting everybody via binoculars at their number. I see him coming and I tell the other announcer, “I got this one.” So I get on the microphone, “From San Diego, California, Dan Trone!” And it just hit me the conversation we’d had of me saying, “Don’t worry,” and I go, “You ARE an IRONMAN!” It was almost like I was putting it in his face, “You did it! I told you! You are an IRONMAN!” And he looked up, and he pointed, I pointed back, and it was just pure joy! But then something happened I didn’t expect. The crowd just raised their level of noise like I couldn’t believe. And I’m going, “They don’t know Dan, he’s nobody, not like a pro. That’s interesting.” So the next person’s coming in and I go, “Well, they are an IRONMAN too,” and I yelled it out, and the crowd did it again. So that’s how it started, and forever in my mind, that’s how it’ll be.
Joanna: Yes, Andrew, I would have to say that that probably was the episode that really took me by storm. I just didn’t expect it to be as emotional for myself or Andrew. There were so many words, so many things I wanted to say to Mike, as he’s called my name lots of times, and every time it means so much. I wanted to give him a tribute, I wanted to tell him what he has meant to so many people, and how those simple words that he says has validated the journey of so many athletes. Everything they’ve struggled through, whether it was life struggles, training struggles, he has a way of making each person feel special. In that, it was such a special episode, and I was so honored to be part of that.
Andrew: I will transition us from one episode with a triathlon hero and legend, Mike Reilly, into my very first Best of 2022 episode. I’m going with Episode .164, “Bob Babbitt and the Challenged Athlete’s Foundation: Empowering Lives Through Sport”. The clip I selected from the episode with Bob is specifically a clip where, John, you had asked him what it was like being in his role as the media shepherd for the week on race week. He gets to do a lot of things, he interviews all the big-name pros, and what that was like for him as a media guy, as somebody who does media for a living. I really enjoyed hearing him talk about that part of his life and career. So this is Bob talking about what it is like being the guy who does “Breakfast With Bob” and being the guy who gets to interview all the biggest names in the sport whenever race week comes around.
Bob: I think everything started with Track Club News, and it became Running News, and Running and Triathlon News with Mike Plant. I like creating different characters, so I created some characters for the magazine called the Running Wino, the Reverend Campagnolo, Minister of Triathlism – I was in a priest suit with holding a bible, you can’t get away with this stuff nowadays – then Old Fart of the Month. And Mike brought me into his office one day, and he had this pile of letters. Back then you couldn’t just send an email. If you were upset or excited about something, you had to sit down, write it, get a stamp, put it in an envelope and mail it. He goes, “I’ve got all these letters. A lot of these are like, ‘I can’t believe this guy’s talking about somebody as an old fart, and Running Wino is ridiculous,’ but the other ones are, ‘This guy is hilarious. You need to have him do more.’”
Andrew: Bob, how old did you have to be to be considered for Old Fart of the Month?
Bob: Well nowadays we have 80 year-olds, 90 year-olds. But back then, if you were over 50 you were considered an old fart. But anyways, Mike looked at me and he goes, “Listen, the cool thing is, the one thing you don’t want to be in life is vanilla. You want people to feel passion about what you do, what you write about. So the fact that these people sat down to write a letter, and either hated what you wrote or loved what you wrote, that’s exactly what I want for this magazine. So don’t ever forget that. Don’t be vanilla.” That always stuck to me, because you could write a race coverage of a race, of covering the IRONMAN, and talk about Dave Scott and Mark Allen, and you can tell everything that happened in a race, or you can find one part of it that really is something you’re passionate about. So one year at IRONMAN, my coverage was of this guy, Dr. Corey Foulk, who decided to do IRONMAN on a cruiser bike. He had a 55‑pound Schwinn Typhoon, and he qualified for Kona, and rolled this bike. He had a Hawaiian shirt on, barefoot, bike with a kickstand on it painted fluorescent yellow. He paid $25 for the bike, and another $50 in paint to paint this thing. And that was the story. He did this bike ride barefoot on a cruiser bike, because he wanted to show people you didn’t need a $10,000 bike to do the IRONMAN triathlon.
Andrew: Which is still true to this day.
Bob: To this day it’s still true. That to me was the race story. I always like to look at what moves me. You can’t tell everything. Back in the day, when you’d look at a newspaper, they’d say, “This person did this, and this person did that,” and they list all the age groups. That’s vanilla. That’s not passion. Bring the passion, bring that to the game, and people will respond.
Andrew: This was our first special guest pick. I reached out to Jenna Gorham, TriDot staff member, TriDot Ambassador. Jenna works for us, she does a lot of things for TriDot. One of them that is probably the most frontward-facing is, Jenna does a great job, along with Elizabeth, of managing the content on our social media accounts. A lot of the times, whatever you’re seeing on the TriDot social media accounts is Jenna Gorham. Hats off to Jenna for all the great posting. So I reached out to Jenna and said, “Hey Jenna, from all the podcast episodes that you’ve listened to this year, which one would you want to pick as a Best of 2022?” Here is Jenna introducing her episode.
Jenna Gorham: Hi Andrew! Thanks for having me on the podcast! I chose Episode .123, “Aging Up: Getting Faster As You Get Older”. This was one of my favorite episodes of 2022, because both Kurt Madden and Dede Griesbauer spoke to me. I related to their experiences with working on preventative maintenance. I’m almost Dede’s age, and although she has many more years in the sport than I have, she’s experiencing aspects of aging that I’ve experienced. Both guests had some great insight to the possibility of high performance levels when popular thought says we should be slowing down.
Kurt Madden: I think that’s the other thing I find, not to belabor the point, is to be proactive. Just like on a car or on your house, don’t wait until the dashboard has all red lights on it. Take it in. Just like your body, do it in a proactive sense, versus you’re so broken down we can’t repair you and put you together with duct tape on race day.
Dede Griesbauer: Actually it’s interesting you say that Kurt, because I started off my training block after my season break during the holidays, and I marched into a physio’s office and he was like, “Well, what’s wrong?” And I was like, “Well nothing, but I want to go through a movement screen, and I want you to pick up on things that you’re seeing and give me a set of exercises to do on my non-gym days, to spend 20-30 minutes just preventatively.” I want to nip these things in the bud before they become a thing, before you get to that state of being broken down. He looked at me, and he almost wept. He gave me a hug. He’s like, “Why isn’t everybody like you?” It’s not the fun stuff to do, but it goes a long way. Preventative stuff goes a very, very long way in terms of it’s a lot easier to ward off a problem than it is to fix it once you’ve got one.
Kurt: You know, myself as I’m assessing, “How can I get better as a coach? How can I get better as an athlete?” I’ve even taken that bold move now in that I’m doing yoga. I’m doing, like, hot yoga. Back in the ‘80s, if I had told Mark Allen or Scott Tinley, “Hey, I’ve got to go to yoga class,” those guys would have me jump off the ship. That wasn’t going to happen. But in this day and age, if I can start to do yoga, there’s no doubt in my mind when I look at strength, flexibility, balance, doing all those things, it’s a game changer.
Elizabeth: What a great episode! I mean, not only fantastic information, but just a fun episode too, between Dede and Kurt as they’re going back and forth talking about their training and racing. I had the opportunity to train with Dede this summer out in Boulder, Colorado, and in the ten weeks or so that I spent there, she is a beast! I really loved this episode, and though it may have been originally formatted to discuss practical advice for continuing to train as we age, there’s just so much in this episode, as we heard in that clip, that can be applied to athletes of any age. Being proactive, preventative care, all of that is critical. That’s something that BJ Leeper has talked about in a lot of the episodes that he has done as well. As a bonus listen, if you’re looking for more of that information about movement screenings, and how mobility and stability are such key parts of our training, check out one of the episodes that BJ has done as well.
Andrew: Coach Jeff Raines, what is Best of 2022 clip number seven?
Jeff: This came out back in the summer, Episode .141, “One Race, Three Journeys” regarding IRONMAN Texas. I just love our sport, how everyone has a unique story and a unique path to the start line. It can be a sprint tri, you only trained for a month and busted out your first sprint tri, or it can be years getting to your first IRONMAN. But when you’re on that starting line and you’re looking around, you don’t know the story of the person next to you. At the same time and inside of that, you do know that they have a story, because everyone got to that line. Everyone overcame something, and you just don’t know what it is. But we’re all in that together, and we understand that fact, that phenomenon of just getting to that starting line. Nobody else had a more unique story than Jonathan Haynes.
Jonathan Haynes: Yeah, I actually did three and a half IRONMAN ramps for the race. You guys understand Covid cancellations. But the bike accident, I was two weeks away from racing in October of ’21. I was just going on an easy Z2 ride and well, it was one of those stupid moments on a bike that I really don’t have anybody to blame other than myself. I wish it was a really good story, like I wish I could blame the car, but it’s really all my fault. Basically, I grabbed the wrong brake. I grabbed my front brake, so I sent myself over the handlebars, and that was not a fun experience.
Andrew: And that was two weeks before IRONMAN Texas in October 2021, right? So you’d done all the training, you had done your race rehearsals, you were ready to go, and…bike accident. Like you said, it took you out of commission, instead you sherpaed for your buddy Brian. So in April it was your turn. How ready were you to get out there after years of training and waiting for this race?
Jonathan: I was extremely ready to do it. Half of me wanted to get it over with, and the other half of me wanted to, as we said, burn it to the ground and PR the sucker. So it was mixed feelings, but I was glad to finally toe the line and get there.
John: That was one of the more beautiful moments of the year when we saw Jonathan respond the way he did. Part of this story that wasn’t included in there was Jonathan, I believe, actually came to the Woodlands still undecided whether he was going to race or not. It was a last-minute decision to sit it out. That bike ride was two weeks before the race, and he was still trying, but instead of just moping around and feeling sorry for himself, he went to work on race day and was there for his good buddy Brian. That was just really cool to see how Jonathan responded. That’s who he is, and it was reflected in his response to that situation. But it was super cool to see him get to actually race and have a good race. That whole podcast was just super cool to hear the three different stories of athletes that participated in the same race, same course, same day, but just had very different experiences. That was a super fun format and a really enjoyable episode.
Andrew: Yeah, we will definitely bring that format back. I almost brought that format back for CLASH Daytona, just to hear some different experiences from people racing Daytona, because it is just a lot of fun to hear other people’s experience in the sport. So, our eighth Best of 2022 episode, Coach Jo, what have you selected here?
Joanna: Yes, definitely one of my favorites came out last September, Episode .155, “Stories and Strategies from the Back of the Pack,” and these are some of my favorite people. Shannon Cranson and Simon Williams were on the podcast talking about their experiences in racing. Simon has raced a number IRONMANs, and Shannon did IRONMAN Waco with Andrew and myself, was that two years ago?
Andrew: Who knows?
Joanna: Who knows at this point? I really enjoyed their interaction, and how they shared common experiences throughout their racing experiences. That was definitely one of my favorite podcasts we’ve done this last year.
Shannon Cranson: When really looking at these longer distances, some of the moments that really stand out to me were the long rides. There is a great group here in Houston that I had the opportunity to train with. And when we start we usually start together, but then we break up pretty quick because we’re all different speeds. There were times that I spent most of the ride by myself, because I was one of the slowest in the group. Then there are times that people would hold on and wait back with me, but then they’re like, “Okay, well I’m gonna go do my speed work now.” And you know, it was like, “Well great, I just finished my speed work, so I’m gonna be a little bit slower now.”
Andrew: So you're doing the best you can, and you’re getting dropped by people that are just chilling.
Shannon: Yeah, they’re just going around. And you know, at the end of the day, for me, that really helped in preparing for those distances. Because when you are my pace, my speed, and at the back of the pack, you end up riding a lot by yourself and/or having people pass you. So it’s just learning. For me, it was learning how to have a positive attitude about that, and how to handle that time by myself. What musicals was I singing in my head? What songs were stuck in my head? All these things.
Andrew: What ballets were you reciting?
Shannon: I tend to stay away from those. But musicals, you would probably find me going through Wicked a few times. During the race itself there’s a couple of examples, but the one that I’ll stick with was at the very end. We were in the last mile and a half. By this point I knew I was going to make the cutoff, and I was just going the best I could, keep putting one foot forward, and I passed a gentleman who definitely was in a lot pain. So I just slowed down for a minute, and I was like, “Are you doing okay? We got this, we’re gonna finish!” and he was like, “Yep, it doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to be official.” And I was like, “Heck yeah.” That was it. That’s all it has to be.
Andrew: Our ninth Best of 2022 episode, Elizabeth James, what do you have for us?
Elizabeth: This is going to be Episode .159, which was “Performing Under Pressure: Tips from Mark Allen and Michellie Jones”. First of all, it was incredibly challenging to narrow down a clip here. Mark and Michellie just had the most amazing conversation and perspective about how they handled the pressures of racing. What I loved most about this episode is just how applicable it was for every single athlete that would listen to it. It’s not an episode about how to handle racing in the Olympics. It’s not an episode about how to race well in Kona. Certainly there are stories that are relevant and part of that, but it’s really an episode about how YOU, whoever you are, whatever you’re racing, can race the best with whatever event you have coming up.
Mark Allen: At the same time, I was just in my own zone. I think that’s important for people to have: what’s your purpose for being on that start line, beyond the finish placing or the finish time? What experience are you hoping to gain from this journey that has nothing to do with any comparison to anybody else, or even to a maybe younger version of yourself? “This is the most fit that I can ever be, the most prepared on every level, physically, mentally, spiritually that I can be.” So one thought to keep in mind, when you’re going into that big race, is why does this have meaning to you? What are you trying to gain from it? Be willing to just embrace the journey of that day. Especially if it’s a full IRONMAN, it’s going to be a journey. It’s not going to be a one-two you’re done. Take a breath, pull back for a second. Regroup, and then wrap your mind around something that you can control. Get to the next aid station. Loosen up your stride, lower your shoulders if you’re on the run. Relax your cadence if you’re going into the wind and getting blown all around. Whatever it is, give the best you have to give each and every moment. Ask yourself, “Am I being the best version of myself right here?” If you’re whining, I guarantee you the answer is going to be a no. But if you can go, “Whew, okay, I got rid of those voices, it’s background static now. Let me just do what I’ve trained myself to do, let my body take over here.” Then you start to absorb it. The next thing you know you’re in this rhythm, you feel this flow, and the miles are going faster and faster, even though you may even be going slower. It becomes this experience like all of a sudden you’re locked into the best you have to give. That is so empowering when you can find, even for a few moments in the race, that place where you go, “I am locked in and I am giving the best I have.” That is a successful day.
Joanna: I think it’s so cool to listen to Mark Allen talk about the negative thoughts he has in his own brain during racing. He’s very easy to relate to, and it’s thoughts that we all have during these races. I’m like, “No, no, he’s the G.O.A.T.! He’s out there thinking, ‘I’m a bada**, and I can take any of these guys.’” But he has the same thoughts, all of those negative thoughts that sneak into our minds. I really liked the practical application he has in breaking it down and talking about tiny goals, small things that we can control, and how we can change our mindset in an instant, and take it from a negative thought process to things that we can make small little changes in our race, and tap into those thoughts that, “I am the most prepared that I can be for this race, and I’m going to enjoy this day and enjoy this journey.” I really enjoyed him on that podcast.
Andrew: Coach John Mayfield, your second pick, our tenth overall pick for Best of 2022 podcast episodes, what do you got?
John: It picks up right on that conversation of that last one. My second pick is Episode .144, “Why the G.O.A.T. Chose the Dot”. This was just an absolute surreal experience for me. We had started talking with Mark Allen earlier in the year. He actually approached us about coming on, and this was actually the first time that Mark had traveled out to Texas to meet in person with us. Andrew, you and I sat at a table with Mark Allen and listened to him tell these stories that I’ve heard for years. They are the stories of triathlon. I’ve heard them numerous times before, I’ve seen them on the TV shows, I’ve read the books about it. But to sit across that table with just the three of us there, to have Mark Allen telling these stories just brought a whole new life to it, and I remember sitting there like, “Man, this is my job, this is my career, that I am now sitting across the table from Mark Allen as he’s telling these stories.” And he tells them so well. This one was the clip of him closing out the Iron War, and again, to sit across the table and hear him tell that story of that last mile or so where he and Dave Scott had been shoulder to shoulder since the beginning of the swim and he pulls away, again that was just a surreal moment that still gives me goosebumps talking about it.
Mark Allen: At the bottom of the hill was this aid station, and conventional wisdom, the “smart thing to do” is to get one last little glass of something, because you’re running on fumes at that point. Even if you can get in 10 or 15 calories, something absorbs, it might make the difference between walking and winning. Both of us had seen that the first one of us that got to the aid station got what they wanted, and because we were so close, the aid station volunteers would get jumbled a little bit, so that the second person may not get everything they want. So Dave hustled his way into the front, he threw out his hand to get one last glass of whatever he was drinking, and I started to come in behind him. And right as I went to reach, something just said, “GO!” It was like it came out of the universe. I pulled my hand back and I just started sprinting – as best as you can at the end of an IRONMAN –
Andrew: With all you had in that moment!
Mark: Not very impressive, I guarantee you! I started sprinting, and literally in the three or four seconds for Dave to reach over, grab his glass, and look back, I put about almost two meters on him, and you can see it in the footage when he looks back and sees that gap had opened up, it completely blew his mind. He was the best from Hour 6 onward in that race, but now all of a sudden here we are at eight hours, and somebody’s pulling away from him and his zip code in the place where he’d shown historically every single race he’s the stronger one.
Andrew: He’d never seen it happen before.
Mark: He’d never seen that happen. So he starts to rock, his shoulders come up, his breathing is up instead of down. I mean, everything that could go wrong was going wrong with his form. I made it to the top of the hill before him, and I knew I had to get to the bottom of the hill before him because he was so fast on the downhills. I got to the bottom, I looked back, I couldn’t see him, then I knew I had him. I made that last loop to the finish line, and on that last stretch on Ali’i Drive, there were thousands of people cheering, and I could tell that they were cheering because they were not only happy to see me win, but they were happy because they knew it wasn’t just this race, this was a journey of seven years it had taken to get me to this point, and they were cheering for that journey as well. I won, I crossed the finish line. Dave had his best IRONMAN ever in his career, he broke his previous world record by almost 18 minutes. And I did my best time to that date by nearly 30 minutes, but the difference in our times was very, very small, a mere 58 seconds.
Jeff: Just like John alluded to, it’s been great getting to know Mark and having him as part of our TriDot family, and seeing him throughout the year, hearing these epic stories, but also lots of other cool stories along the way, some of the backstories behind the famous stories. It’s great having Mark on the team, and it has just been a blast getting to know him this year.
Andrew: All right, my final pick, this is Best of the TriDot Podcast 2022 clip #11, it’s my second choice. I really enjoyed Episode .153, “Body Weight, Performance, and Triathlon”. This episode is already in our top ten most-listened-to episodes, so I know it’s a topic that you, our listeners, cared about as well. Hearing both Taryn and Krista talk about this, they’re both very passionate about us knowing that leaner is not always better, performance needs to come before a certain physique, and having both of them reiterate that. The clip I’ve chosen is from Taryn very distinctly and very well sharing her thoughts on body weight and performance. Dr. Krista Austin shared a lot of great nuggets in this episode as well. So thankful for them, thankful for their expertise, we’re going to have both of them on the show more going forward in 2023 as our nutrition experts. So here is the clip I selected for Episode .153.
Taryn Richardson: Yeah, it’s a really hard one, because triathlon is not an aesthetic sport like gymnastics, but you’ve still got to get into a pretty tight tri suit, and you’re on the pool deck semi-naked a lot of the time. So I know triathletes are quite conscious and self-conscious about their body composition. The hardest part for me is trying to get them to understand that their weight is not necessarily linked to performance in an age group sense. We’re talking about having enough energy for training – not bonking, hitting the wall, falling into a heap, getting sick all the time, and further along that continuum, ending up in things like low energy availability that people put themselves into because they’re constantly striving to be leaner, to be lighter, to be faster. But does that really matter for some people? The foundation needs to really come from eating healthy first, and a lot of people don’t really get that. They do crazy things with their diet, they starve themselves, or they overeat, or they cut carbs to lose weight, and then they don’t have the energy to support their training and their performance. So with an age group population, it’s trying to get people to understand that weight doesn’t necessarily equal better performance. Look at Blummenfelt, right? He’s getting a lot of media at the moment for his body composition. I don’t really want to put more limelight on this because I think it’s just a ridiculous conversation, but he is what, in people’s minds, not the ideal body composition for triathlon. But he’s smashing it, so what does it really matter? It’s finding the ideal weight and body composition for you so that you’re healthy and you’re functioning to the best of your ability, and your performing doesn’t necessarily always mean you have to be the lightest and the leanest to get there. I guess it’s trying to get people to understand that, and what actually matters first and foremost is that they’re healthy, rather than always trying to get to race weight, get as light as possible, because that doesn’t always equal better performance.
Elizabeth: Having both Dr. Austin and Taryn on this episode was just a gold mine of information, and I love how they really ask athletes to be reflective on their weight and their relationship with the scale. How do we look at weight from a performance perspective versus what the media is saying? When we look at our weight, let’s also talk about what is heathy. I love how they position that question, “Are you healthy?” When it comes to your weight and your best triathlon performance, we have to look at it from the health perspective first.
Andrew: For our final pick here, this is our twelfth Best of 2022 episode, I asked Vanessa Ronksley, who has been doing a great job with our cooldown interviews here lately on the podcast. I’m really excited to have Vanessa do more and more with the show as we move into 2023. She actually is going to co‑host the very, very first episode of January 2023 with me for the first time, that’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be two average athletes interviewing one of our experts. I asked Vanessa to look at all of the episodes from the year and pick her personal favorite. Here’s what Vanessa had to say.
Vanessa Ronksley: I feel so honored to have been invited to choose my favorite episode, so thank you for that. I chose Episode .128 from March 7, and it’s the one with Bobby McGee. I have listened to this podcast multiple times, and each time I listen there’s a different part that resonates with me. One that I absolutely love is when he talks about the way in which we approach adversity, and how this will lead to some kind of outcome based on what we choose to focus on. After listening to this podcast, in my training I purposely created opportunities for discomfort, because I wanted to practice problem solving with what I had available in that exact moment. Like biking home from work in a full-on blizzard in the dark, that was super fun with many challenges. But the best part is, this problem-solving mentality transfers so well over to real life. Whether it’s a parenting situation, a work-related issue, or even an interaction that you have with a person that’s totally uncomfortable, using the skills that he talks about in this clip will have you coming up with solutions to move forward. Bobby McGee is the best!
Bobby McGee: In showing up at the start line, and conditions aren’t what you’ve prepared for, this is very common from the age‑group athlete is, “I’m just going to see how it goes. I’m going to stick to the plan, and then when it falls apart, we’ll make a decision.” That’s a fatal error right there. No, you see a choice, make the choice, adapt from the get‑go. “What in my tool box is useful? Is agonizing about my condition, and I feel terrible, and I’m nauseous and puking and hot,” is that helping you? What can you do? “Oh, I can shorten my stride length, I can scrunch and release my shoulders. What can I actually do? I can take a short, chosen walk break, I can hydrate. I can do this, I can do that.” So it’s just feeling in control. And this might be a good time to speak about the difference between self-confidence and self-efficaciousness.
Andrew: Sure. Go for it.
Bobby: This is what they learned from the math Olympiads. Kids that showed up in the questionnaire as NOT being confident did really, really well. They asked them when they go in, what are they thinking? The kids that feel that they were self-confident were subjectively saying, “I think I’m good enough, I’m not going to embarrass myself here, I think I’ll be able to win,” etc. The kids that were more effective were self-efficacious. This is Bandura’s work from the ‘70s. They were thinking about what do they have to do. “If I get this math problem, which equation do I use?” That’s how they’re visualizing problem-solving. They’re not visualizing ego stuff, “How am I going to feel, am I going to look good, am I going to win this, what happens if I don’t win, what happens if I do poorly,” etc. None of their thinking is there. They’re thinking about the DOING. “So now I’m dying out here. What are the signs? I’m dehydrated, what do I need to do? I need to find some electrolytes. I need to get some fluid in me. I need to regather myself. Walking is moving forward, so I’m going to take a little walk break, and I’m going to look at my options, etc. At the next aid station, I’m going to do this, that, and the other. I’m going to shuffle, I’m not going to be putting out a lot of range of motion, etc.” Because how many people forget they have two gels? They forget that they have a glucose tab hidden away. They forget that they have an extra bottle, or that the next aid station is a mile away, and they’ve got a special needs bag there, or whatever the case might be. That all goes out the window. It’s presence. It’s literally presence, and working with what’s in your toolbox.
Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.
Vanessa Ronksley: The theme of today’s podcast is “Best Of”, so I thought for the cooldown we could talk about people who have perfected doing the right training right. So I’d like to give some shout outs to the top earners of XP points, and our beloved mythical creatures. For overall most XP points, we have Matt Sommer with a total of 12,701. Matt Sommer and Jared Picune tied with 46 Ponicorns. Kevin Henderson earned 24 unicorns. Cheryl Lilley earned 14 Pegasi – and I had to look up the plural of Pegasus on Google, so it’s Pegasi – and Kimberly Buchheid earned 7 Pegacorns. Now, this last one, the Pegacorn, is actually pretty amazing, because in order to get a Pegacorn you need to earn three TrainX 100’s on top-priority sessions in one week, so that is a massive deal. Congratulations to all these amazing athletes who have definitely figured out how to do the right training right. Now, one of these rock stars is joining me on the podcast today, and I am so honored and excited to be speaking with him. You most likely have seen his posts on all of the socials, and I know for me personally, these messages are very motivating and thought-provoking. I’m Vanessa, your Average Triathlete With Elite-Level Enthusiasm, and I’m here with TriDot athlete and coach, but more importantly the amazing human, Matt Sommer. Welcome to the cooldown, Matt!
Matt Sommer: Thanks Vanessa! It’s an honor to be here, and this is actually really exciting for me. I’ll have to be honest, when you reached out and asked me to be on and told me the why, I was shocked. I had no clue whatsoever that I was leading in XP points. That was super-exciting to find that out, and just great to be here and share, and have a good conversation with you tonight.
Vanessa: That’s perfect. So is there some magical secret that you can share with us on how you cash in on all these XP points? How do you create intentionality and turn it into such consistent execution?
Matt: You know that’s funny, honestly there is no special sauce, there’s no secret. The biggest thing as a coach and as an athlete myself is approaching each and every workout day by day. Showing up is step number one. You’ve got to show to even get the workout done, so making that conscious decision to get up and get on the bike, get up and get outside and run, get up and go to the pool, that’s step number one.
Step number two, for me, is I make it a priority. I think that’s one of the biggest things that I try to stress to myself – and I try to lead by example, especially with the athletes that I coach – is you’ve got to prioritize. Every week when I sit down with my athletes and do our face-to-face conversations and we talk about the week ahead, it’s all about prioritizing. On paper the week looks great, the workouts are there, they look achievable, we talk about execution. But then after it’s all said and done we talk about, “Okay, what’s life look like for you this week? How can we make sure that we’re getting the workouts done? If you know you have a cocktail party Friday night, do we need to move Saturday around? If you know your kids have a sporting event or a play recital or a ballet recital, you don’t miss those things.” That’s a non‑negotiable with me. I don’t miss my family stuff, I don’t let my athletes miss their family stuff. That’s priority number one. But we move the workouts around to make sure that they can get executed with purpose, I think that’s important.
Plan for success. That’s the biggest thing that I try to do is every day when I wake up it’s, “Okay, what’s my game plan. How am I going to approach the workout?” Go through it the night before. Plan the night before, I think that’s important. If you’re doing it on Zwift, get it set up. Make sure Zwift is updated the night before. All too often we run into that where it’s not updating. Make sure you’ve got your swimsuit in your swim bag so when you show up at the pool you’re not like, “Oh darn, I don’t have it.” Make sure your Stryd pod is powered. It’s planning. Everybody has hiccups in the day and being able to adapt.
I’m pretty fortunate that with what I do, I live on the half-hour. I hate to say that. With my full-time job as a fitness director at a private country club, I personal train, so I’m with somebody different every 30 minutes. During my coach calls, it’s somebody different every 30 minutes. I can block that time off. I realize I’m pretty fortunate in that. But again, it does take scheduling, it does take priority.
One of the biggest things, I think, where success comes from, is definitely the advent of smart trainers and treadmills. When we think about those odometers and being able to use Wahoo Kickr or get on a treadmill, the focus and the disciplined execution are second to none. We can really dial in the training. As a coach and as an athlete, I’m okay with using smart trainers and treadmills, and I actually recommend them for Zone 4 work and higher. I think for Zone 4 work, Zone 5 work, and Zone 6 work, the focus, the discipline, and taking the fault out of it with those devices really helps with precision. It’s hard to do that outside. If you go outside, how many of us have a stretch of pavement that we can go 18‑minute straight at threshold riding a bike without a stoplight, cars, animals? It’s nearly impossible. But on a smart trainer you can, and you can also hold the power that you need to hold, which is a skill of its own, but without worrying about hills, stop signs, cars, animals, and everything else. Same with running. When you’re running outside, you’ve still got to worry about cars, sidewalks, the curb, puddles, animals. So I’m a big fan of those devices for Zone 4, Zone 5, Zone 6. Now Zone 2, Zone 3, take them outside. Work on pacing. There’s also a cognitive piece. You’ve got decision-making that you have to worry about when you’re outside. Zone 2, Zone 3, you can make decisions. You can be paying attention to everything around you and be aware. But Zone 4 and higher, a lot of times you’re so dialed in and focused on what you’re doing, you don’t have time to think about those things from a safety perspective too. So I do a lot of my quality work on the trainer and on the treadmill, but I also get my butt outside quite a bit for the Zone 2, Zone 3 stuff, because you’ve got to be out there, you’ve got to be outside.
Vanessa: Well, that’s a whole ton of juicy little nuggets of training success, thank you for sharing that! I think I’ll have to implement that in my own training, that’s for sure. This was so great, Matt, thank you for sharing some of your training secrets and your life philosophy with us, and for being so amazing at everything that you do. I know for me, you are such an inspiration, and I know that’s the same for many people out there. Thank you so much!
Matt: Well, I appreciate you having me on here, and like I said, I love what I do. One of the first things that I tell people is, “I’m as passionate about this as you are, I’m going to meet it if not exceed it.” I get to help people work out. That’s not a bad gig, at my full-time job and with coaching, I get to help people find the best versions of themselves. If the worst part of my day is folding towels, I’m doing better than a lot of people. Like I said, I try to find the positive, and I really do love it. TriDot has been such a big part of my life since 2018. TriDot helped me through some very challenging parts of my life in late 2020, just going through some stuff, and that’s where I directed my energy. One of my favorite quotes, I’m going to leave you guys with this one, and I tell a lot of my athletes this is, “Don’t adapt to the energy in the room. Influence the energy in the room.” That’s one of those things where it’s like, “Don’t let people bring you down. Bring them up.” That’s what I have tried to do, and it just brings joy to my heart watching people succeed, achieve things they didn’t think they could do. And I get as much out of them as they get out of me. Thank you.
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.