The TriDot Triathlon Podcast

It's time to "negative split" the year and finish stronger than you started! Whatever has happened in the first half of your season, this episode is going to help you nail the next part! Joining us today is triathlon legend and Coach Mark Allen and Coach Joanna Nami. Mark and Joanna discuss how to stay healthy, injury free, and motivated in the back half of the year. They also talk about setting a race schedule that enables you to peak at the right time. There's plenty of time left this year for a great performance. Listen in to get all the tips for smashing the second half of your triathlon season! At TriDot, we trust 2Toms to keep us moving! 2Toms provides revolutionary products to prevent issues from chafing, blisters, odors and sweat. To make the switch to 2Toms, head to Medi-Dyne.com and use the code “TRIDOT” to save 20 percent on your entire order. A big thanks to UCAN for being a long-time partner of the podcast! 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.

This episode tells you all you need to know (and maybe even a little bit more) about wheels, tubes, and tires. And the expert guest TJ Tollakson - an industrial engineer, the Owner of Dimond Bicycles, the Founder and CEO of Rüster Sports, and a former professional triathlete - is the 'man for the job' when talking about the science behind optimizing your setup. TJ, along with TriDot Coach Jeff Raines, discuss types of wheels, braking surfaces, tire widths, tube selection, and more! What goes into the engineering of a top notch wheelset? How does tire width affect your ride? How can you determine the correct PSI for you? You won't want to miss this hour of information! Big thanks to Precision Fuel & Hydration for partnering with us on this episode! Head over to precisionfuelandhydration.com and check out the Fuel Planner to get your free personalized fuel and hydration strategy. Use the code TRI10 to get 10% off your first order. TriDot and Dimond Bikes are a dynamite race day 1 – 2 punch. Dimond provides you with the Ferrari of bikes, and TriDot Training develops your engine. We are excited to partner with Dimond on some really cool offers. If you are new to TriDot, we’re offering 6 months of the Mark Allen Edition of TriDot with the purchase of a Dimond. If you are already a TriDot athlete, we are offering either an upgrade credit or TriDot store credit with your new bike. Head to DimondBikes.com for all the info, and to dream up your very own bike.

What is Xterra and is this adventurous endeavor for you? On this episode you'll hear from two Xterra Triathlon World Champions: Michellie Jones and Andy Blow. Michellie and Andy overview the structure of an Xterra triathlon including course set-ups, distance options, and the gear you'll need. They also overview the differences, and similarities, of preparing for and executing a great race off the beaten path. We are thrilled to have sailfish as the swim partner of TriDot Training. Head to sailfish.com to scout out your next wetsuit, swimskin, goggles and more! Use code sfc-tridot20 at checkout, for 20 percent off your new wetsuit. 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.

Female triathletes have some gender-specific considerations when planning training and racing, and this female-focused episode provides all you need to know. Join host Vanessa Ronksley as she chats with Dr. Sara Gross and IRONMAN World Champion Mirinda Carfrae about the menstrual cycle, fertility treatments, and pregnancy. Should you adjust your training for different phases of your cycle? Can you continue triathlon training during fertility treatments? When is an appropriate time to return to training post-pregnancy? Listen in to learn all of this, and more! Big thanks to Precision Fuel & Hydration for partnering with us on this episode! Head over to precisionfuelandhydration.com and check out the Fuel Planner to get your free personalized fuel and hydration strategy. Use the code TRI10 to get 10% off your first order. At TriDot, we trust 2Toms to keep us moving! 2Toms provides revolutionary products to prevent issues from chafing, blisters, odors and sweat. To make the switch to 2Toms, head to Medi-Dyne.com and use the code “TRIDOT” to save 20 percent on your entire order.

There are no excuses on race day, and there are none in life. At least that's what Mike Reilly, the Voice of IRONMAN, says. On this episode, hosts Andrew Harley and Vanessa Ronksley welcome back Mike - not only as a returning guest on the show, but also as TriDot's new "Chief Motivation Officer." Hear from Mike as he reflects on the IRONMAN finish lines and the lessons that shine through on race day. Some of the lessons are specific to racing. Others apply on and off the course. But all of them are sure to make you think as he connects each lesson with stories and words of inspiration. A big thanks to UCAN for being a long-time partner of the podcast! 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. At TriDot, we trust 2Toms to keep us moving! 2Toms provides revolutionary products to prevent issues from chafing, blisters, odors and sweat. To make the switch to 2Toms, head to Medi-Dyne.com and use the code “TRIDOT” to save 20 percent on your entire order.

CdA. Group Set. BTA. Brick. Microcyle. Say what? Not only is triathlon a complex sport with multiple disciplines and a lot of gear, but there are also a number of sport-specific words and phrases to be learned! So on today's episode, host Andrew Harley asks TriDot Coaches Elizabeth James, Jeff Raines, and Joanna Nami to identify and explain 66 terms, phrases, and acronyms triathletes need to know. That's A LOT of tri-specific terminology, so listen in to see what you can learn! TriDot and Dimond Bikes are a dynamite race day 1 – 2 punch. Dimond provides you with the Ferrari of bikes, and TriDot Training develops your engine. We are excited to partner with Dimond on some really cool offers. If you are new to TriDot, we’re offering 6 months of the Mark Allen Edition of TriDot with the purchase of a Dimond. If you are already a TriDot athlete, we are offering either an upgrade credit or TriDot store credit with your new bike. Head to DimondBikes.com for all the info, and to dream up your very own bike. Big thanks to Precision Fuel & Hydration for partnering with us on this episode! Head over to precisionfuelandhydration.com and check out the Fuel Planner to get your free personalized fuel and hydration strategy. Use the code TRI23 to get 10% off your first order.

 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: Welcome to the TriDot podcast! We’ve got a great topic today. There are all sorts of locations that offer performance testing for triathletes. I’ll be asking two TriDot coaches if performance testing is worth our time and money. We’ve got a new coach on the show for this one. New to the show that is, definitely not new to triathlon coaching.It’s TriDot coach Chris Navin, from Chicago, Illinois. Chris has raced over 100 triathlons and 250 endurance races. He is a Kona finisher, a more than 38-time marathoner, he’s got over 20 Ironman finishes to his credit, ranking as high as 9th in the U.S. and 33rd in the world in his Ironman age-group rankings. Chris is a Level 2 USA Triathlon Certified Coach, and Head Endurance Coach of Four Star Endurance and a Team to End AIDS. Chris, welcome to the show! Chris Navin: Hey gang! It’s an honor to finally be on the show! Andrew: Also with us is Coach Jeff Raines. Jeff is a USA Triathlon Level 2, IRONMAN U certified coach, and TriDot Master Coach, who has a Master of Science in Exercise Physiology, and was a D-1 collegiate runner. He has over sixty IRONMAN event finishes to his credit, and has coached hundreds of athletes to the IRONMAN finish line. Jeff has been training and coaching with TriDot since 2015. Hey there, Jeff! Jeff Raines: What’s up Andrew! How’s daddy life? Andrew: It’s going! 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 main set topic, and then wind things down with Vanessa taking over for the cooldown. Lots of good stuff, let’s get to it! Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving. Andrew: There is literally an endless supply of podcasts out there in the wild. As the medium continues to grow, the joke amongst podcasters is, “Who DOESN’T have a podcast these days?” Personally, I love it. Go ahead, start a podcast, podcasting is fun! But our warmup question for today – Chris, Jeff, what is your favorite non-endurance sports-related podcast to listen to? Coach Chris? Chris: It’s a tough one, because most of the podcasts I listen to are endurance sports-related. But there’s actually a ton of them. One of my hobbies living here in Chicago is architecture, so I listen to different vlogs and blogs about architecture. I live right downtown, so that’s a big hobby of mine, like the B1M Vlog, that’s one of my favorites. Andrew: Good! See, we’re already getting a peek into your personal life, just by asking you a warmup question. Good to know that about you, and that makes sense. When I was scouting out your website, researching you for this episode, you’ve got a lot of Chicago imagery built into your website.You’re obviously proud of your roots there. TriDot has a great presence in Chicago, and actually there is a Chicago Facebook group for TriDot specifically, isn’t that right Chris? Chris: Yeah, I AM TriDot Chicago. Andrew: Yeah, so if you’re from the Chicago area and you’re listening to this, make sure you’re a part of the Chicago Metroplex area I AM TriDot Facebook group. Coach Jeff Raines, what is a non-endurance sports-related podcast that you enjoy listening to? Jeff: You know, I really enjoy the Bible Project. Man, they do a great job of providing great content, breaking down the Bible and making it fun, and they also have some video aspects to it as well for YouTube, and they just do a great job. I love it, it’s very entertaining, and that’s probably the most listened-to one outside of training and running-type of podcasts. Andrew: Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of their material on YouTube and on social media. I was unaware that they had a podcast, so that’s very cool to know. I’ll have to check that out. Jeff, as a family man with the kids, is that a resource you use with your kiddos to share some of those stories with them? Jeff: Yeah, they do a great job of breaking it down for adults to really understand some of the deep stuff. That, in turn, absolutely makes it all the better and easier as a parent to relay that down to the kiddo elementary level. Andrew: I will give a shout out, there’s several I listen to depending on the time of year. Ironically, ever since starting a podcast, I probably listen to less podcasts now than I did before having my own podcast. By the time you script a podcast, record a podcast, publish podcasts, you lose some of your personal podcast listening time. But I still have a few that I make sure I get to throughout my month, week, or year. My all-time favorite one, my personal way to stay in touch with my best friends from college, is we have a fantasy football league. Every time the NFL kicks back up, that’s the only league I do now. I’ve kind of moved on from the whole fantasy sports thing except for this one league, since it’s my way to stay in touch with my college friends. Just to make sure I’m competitive and know what I’m talking about, and that I’m consistently doing a good job in that league and not finishing last place, I have a podcast I listen to called the Fantasy Footballers. They’re just three guys, they’re very entertaining, and they just share their thoughts and insights into prepping your fantasy team for every single week, talking through which players might play really well this week based on matchups and this and that, and all that fantasy nerd-dom. Jeff: It’s a cheat sheet! You’re just getting cheats! Andrew: Yeah, honestly! Instead of doing a ton of research myself, I just listen to them. They know what they’re talking about, and then I just learn what I can learn and set my lineup, and they go dominate on Sunday. We’re curious to hear, from you our listener, what is your favorite non-endurance sports-related podcast? I pitch it that way because obviously the TriDot podcast is your favorite endurance sports-related podcast.  If it’s not, just lie to me and tell me that it is. But I’m going to throw a post out to the I AM TriDot Facebook group, asking you, from all the podcasts out there NOT endurance sports-related, what is one that you just love firing up whenever they drop an episode? Let us know in the comments on the I AM TriDot Facebook group. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say! Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1… Andrew: We are thrilled to have Sailfish as the swim partner of TriDot Training. Sailfish was founded in 2007 by Jan Sibbersen, who was on the national German team, and is the fastest swimmer to ever hit the waters of Ironman. The Sailfish mission is to create premium triathlon and open water swim products, and with the Kona course record holder personally testing everything they make, you know you are getting something special when you order from Sailfish. Sailfish certainly offers swim skins, tri suits, and swim accessories, but the core of the Sailfish product line is their award-winning wetsuits, known for their outstanding flexibility, balance, buoyancy, and distinguished gliding properties in the water. Sailfish wetsuits are truly made to make you faster. That certainly has been the case for me. I’ve swum in many different brands of wetsuits over the years, and my Sailfish is the very first one that I put on, got into the water, and clocked swim splits I had no business hitting on my own. For me, it was love at first stroke. With several models and price points, there for sure will be a Sailfish wetsuit that is right for you. So head to sailfish.com to check out all the neoprene goodness, and use code SAILFISHSFC20 at checkout for 20% off your new wetsuit. There are a number of lab-style performance tests that can give a triathlete insight into different aspects of their body or their performance. Things like VO2max testing, blood lactate testing, VO2 calorie expenditure testing, and more! What is helpful, who should be doing these, where should you be getting these things done, and what do we do with the results once we get these tests? All that and more with Coach Chris and Coach Jeff. Now Chris, it’s your very first time on the show, so before I ask you about the science of performance testing, I want to ask you about you, the triathlete and the coach.  From Kona, to representing Team USA, to Zwift racing, you have loads of tri experience. From all of that, all your time on course, what is maybe your favorite memory or triathlon story to tell? Chris: That’s a tough one, because I have a lot of races I’ve done. Kona is definitely up there. I call it one of my top five favorite experiences ever. Andrew: Sure, it’s gotta be. Chris: Alcatraz was also one of my favorite ones, and Ironman New York City, when they had a one-time-only event in New York, where you swam in the Hudson. But sometimes I just like to share my first triathlon experience. Because I’m not a top athlete, I started as a back-of-the-packer. I did my first triathlon on a mountain bike, and could barely swim, so I was aqua-jogging and backstroking the swim just to get through. But since getting into metabolic testing and whatnot, obviously I’ve focused more on the performance side.  So one of my more recent favorite memories I like to share sometimes, simply because I used some metabolic testing data for it, is I tried to create my own challenge. At the Chicago Triathlon they have what’s called the Triple Challenge, where you do all three events in one weekend.  I came up with my own Quintuple Challenge, where by pacing every race perfectly, I figured out a way to do the super-sprint race on Saturday fast enough to line back up and get to join the last wave, which is on a Divvy Bikeshare – you got your bike provided by the local city bikeshare, so you don’t have to bring a second bike – so I would squeeze out two super-sprints quickly enough within the time span of the one race. Then on Sunday where they have the big race, a sprint and Olympic distance, I did the Olympic fast enough, and I had an entry with our charity team to do the sprint right afterwards, and still try to make it in time to do the very last wave of the day, and do five races in the span of what they typically only allow three for. But the year I was attempting it, they canceled the swim and turned it into a duathlon, and I missed the final wave by just a minute or two. But it’s always fun to take triathlon and try to do something fun with it and enjoy the experience. Andrew: Yeah, absolutely! So you were really going for five races, and you got four of the five. Chris: Yeah, so I completed the quadruple, which at least one other person I know of has done four of the Chicago Tri races in one weekend. But the quintuple, doing five, is a challenge that I still have out there, so I might at some point attempt it again if I can get my fitness to that point and get the logistics down to do it. Andrew: Yeah, please let us follow along if you do that. Please let us capture that journey, perhaps for our YouTube show or something. Chris, very much like Coach Jeff Raines who is also on this podcast, you’ve done studying, you’ve got your specialties.  You’re a certified coach in swim, bike, and run individually. You’ve done spin classes, you’re a TriDot Pool School coach, and most importantly for the conversation today, you specialize in metabolic testing. For that one specifically, what does a coach or a sports scientist have to do to become a metabolic performance testing specialist? Chris: It’s a tough one, there’s not a typical way necessarily. The main way that a lot of people get into metabolic testing is if you go through an exercise physiology program or exercise science.You have people that come from the university setting get into testing, but they oftentimes have the science background and education background, but not necessarily the experience or the application perspective that a lot of endurance athletes are looking for. So I would say if someone was a sports scientist, they should really focus on using the data, applying it with athletes, learning to coach, and also doing more endurance events themselves. Coaches, on the other hand, if they want to get into becoming a metabolic specialist, I really think they need to focus on what they might NOT have gotten if they don’t have that exercise science background. Just learn, educate your brain, train your brain, try to absorb as much information as you can, reach out to experts of the industry. Because a lot of it, actually for me even when I started getting into it – I really liked the science aspect of it, I had a lot of experience, but it actually took a lot of just doing testing, both on myself and other coaches and athletes. There’s definitely something to be said by the art and science of doing testing, and doing testing well. Andrew: Yeah, sure, almost like getting a bike fit. There’s numbers and geometries and angles, but then there’s the art of getting the athlete in the right position for whatever race they’re doing. Chris: Bike fit is the perfect parallel, yep. Jeff: I think a lot of exercise testing kind of starts out, like you said, in that research setting, that lab setting. They’re using the modalities of performance testing to provide data for the research that they’re partaking in. I think a lot of exercise physiologists in general start off in that realm, then those who understand the sport of triathlon or the performance side kind of veer out of that potential research setting into more of a practical or athlete-type setting, for sure. Chris: One example I use from my own background – when I have done a lot of testing, I end up getting a lot of athletes from the ultra-distance racing world, like trail running, ultra-distance marathons. But I had never done them. I knew from the numbers what should work for a fueling plan, what should work for a pacing plan, and I had done Ironmans, but I had never done an ultramarathon other than a 50K. So we had one of our coaches, who is also a Ph.D. down in South Africa, he got us interested in doing the Two Oceans Ultramarathon, which is like a 35-mile race. I hadn’t actually trained for it, but I knew my numbers and I said, “Okay, this will be an experiment. I’m going to see if I can take what I learned in the lab and apply it, and see if it actually works.” I paced that race without walking a single step, start to finish, kept the heart rate right where I needed to, and I learned quite a bit from that type of experience. Even though I had done a lot of testing and I had a lot of race experience, I had never done this other type of race. So I think it’s always important, whether you’re a coach or a sports scientist or someone who’s just interested in getting into it, take the data and apply it. Put yourself in a field test environment to build that experience. I think that’s the key. Andrew: Well, that’s enough about Chris, I want to get into the science here today. I’ve already thrown the words “performance testing” and “metabolic testing” around quite a bit. I’m not a scientist in this area, so I’m probably using those interchangeably and I probably should not, but that’s all right. Chris and Jeff can correct me on that. So Chris, Jeff, what is this? What is metabolic testing? What tests are out there for triathletes to actually potentially do? Jeff: Metabolic testing involves evaluating a person’s metabolic rate at which they burn calories as energy and use oxygen. There’s many ways you can break that down. RMR is probably one that many use, it’s resting metabolic rate, but it’s how much work your body does at rest. VO2max is a big one, the max volume of oxygen and anaerobic capacity. BMP, basic metabolic panel, that’s bloodwork. You can get bloodwork to see, at a baseline, what’s going on currently. One that I did a lot of extensive work on, back in graduate and post years, is body composition. There are a lot of different numbers and metrics you can gain from those. There’s very basic things to track body composition, for triathletes in particular, rather than just standing on the scale. The weight can stay the same all year, but your body will look a little bit different at different times of the season. There’s Bod Pod, where you sit in this little pod and it measures air displacement. There’s underwater or hydrostatic weighing. The DEXA scan is cool, because I knew which areas of my body had greater and/or less bone mass. I remember on one of mine, the guy in the lab said, “Jeff, don’t be a boxer.” I’m like, “Why? I’m not tough enough?” And he’s like, “No, your ribs, of all of your body, are on the lower end of normal bone density. So be careful, don’t go be a linebacker or something like that.” Little things like that are kind of cool to know. Andrew: It’s a good thing you're a runner, just an endurance athlete, who doesn’t take shots to the ribs.  Not on purpose anyway, maybe from your kids, I don’t know. Dr. Krista Austin, coming on and talking nutrition with us sometimes, has definitely referred to some of these tests, some of those are getting into body composition and nutrition.  But today we’re really focused on the performance testing that has more to do with your metabolism, the metabolic testing.  If you’re a triathlete, you might see your local bike fitter will offer metabolic testing. You might notice that your local triathlon shop or local running store might offer this. Your local coach, like Chris, might offer this kind of testing. When you see “metabolic testing”, when you see blood lactate, VO2, all these kinds of things, what does this mean? Those are the ones we’re going to really focus on today. But Jeff, thanks for that great list there, because there’s tons of tests out there that people have probably heard of. From these tests that you’ve referred to, what have you personally had done? And probably even more interesting as a coach, what testing do you like to see your coached athletes consider and pay for? Jeff: Good question.  I use a lot of these modalities to track gains and losses throughout the season, or season-to-season. I use them more as benchmarks. It’s all adaptable, it’s always, constantly changing. Your VO2max from a year ago is not the same as it is now, not even ten weeks ago. Back in grad school I used to do a lot of VO2 testing. We could do this...

 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: Well, they did it! The beautiful minds behind TriDot triathlon training have released RunDot, data-optimized training for folks who just want to run. Will there be a RunDot podcast where we just talk about running? Maybe so, maybe not, only time will tell. In the meantime, we’ll talk all about RunDot on the TriDot podcast today. Here to tell us all about it is TriDot founder and CEO, Jeff Booher. Jeff is the chief architect behind TriDot’s nSight optimization technology that powers TriDot training. He is a multiple Ironman finisher, who has coached dozens of professional triathletes and national champions, as well as hundreds of age-groupers to podiums and PRs since he began coaching triathlon back in the year 2003. Jeff, on a scale of zero to ten, how excited are you for the launch of RunDot? Jeff Booher: I’m super excited, Andrew. I’d have to say it’s an eleven today. Andrew: It’s eleven! Wonderful. Cannot be captured by the scale. Also joining us is TriDot’s Vice President of Marketing, Matt Bach. Matt is an accomplished athlete, with an Ironman Maryland victory, and a 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 at marketing at UCAN for 2½ years, before coming on board to lead TriDot’s marketing efforts. Matt, welcome back to the show! Matt Bach: Thanks Andrew! I’m excited to be back on today to talk about the discipline that began it all for me, running. That’s where it all started. Andrew: Mm, yeah! Well, 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 main set topic, and then we’ll wind things down on our cooldown with Vanessa interviewing a TriDot coach giving us a triathlon coaching tip. Lots of good stuff, let’s get to it! Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving. Andrew: Whether it’s triathlon or a run-only event, every time you do a race you are assigned a bib number. Usually it’s out of our control, and usually it’s an unmemorable three or four digits. But the more you race, the better the odds that you will eventually get a race number that stands out and is meaningful for you. Jeff, Matt, for our warmup question today, what was a time where you especially liked your race bib number? Jeff Booher? Jeff: I’m sorry, this is going to be a disappointment. I have not had a memorable one. Like you said in the setup, usually it’s unmemorable. I’d love to say, after the welcome, that it was number 11 that I had, but I’ve just never had one that’s a memorable number. Andrew: And you’re a four-time Ironman finisher I believe? Jeff: Yes, and I’ve done 60-plus races. Andrew: Can you remember even one of your bib numbers? Just one? Jeff: No, I cannot. Andrew: Jeff, it sounds like it’s been too long since you’ve raced, and we need to get you back on the race course one of these days maybe. Jeff: It could be. Matt: The only numbers he cares about are the finishing time and the improvement, he doesn’t care about those meaningless numbers on his bib, right? Jeff: That’s true. Andrew: Matt Bach, do you have an answer to this one, or did I ask the two wrong guys this question? Matt: I do have an answer to this one. I was number 22 at a half marathon in Rutgers in New Jersey. Beforehand I had no love for the number, because to me it was meaningless. But afterwards it was pretty cool, because I was number 22, I placed second overall, and I had a two-minute PR, so there were a lot of twos. Andrew: Yeah, sure, hard to go wrong with that. My answer here, and honestly the inspiration for this question – I did a race last year for the first time. The PTO Tour organization came through Dallas, Texas, and did the U.S. Open. It was right down the road from where I live, so I signed up to go race. My number for the U.S. Open, held in July, was 1776. I honestly didn’t even realize the meaning there, but one of my buddies was with me at packet pickup and he was like, “Aw, dude, you got 1776, nice!” It took me a second, embarrassingly, a little longer than it should, to realize why that was a meaningful number for the PTO Tour U.S. Open. Jeff: You might need to elaborate on that with all of our international listeners. Andrew: Our friends in the U.K. will already know this story, but for everybody else around the world, the year 1776 is the year the United States won its independence from the United Kingdom, a few centuries ago. So the theme at the U.S. Open, everything was flags, red, white, and blue logos, and I was 1776, the Independence number for America. We’re going to throw this question out to our audience. I’m curious, are you like me and Matt and you have an answer here? Or are you like Jeff, and you just honestly can’t think of something memorable? Either way, we want to hear about it. Make sure you’re a part of the I AM TriDot Facebook group, where I will ask this question. The Monday this episode goes out, I’ll pose that question to the group. Have you ever had a race bib number that was somehow extra-meaningful for you? Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1… Andrew: Before we get too deep into the show today, I want to give a shout out to our good friends at UCAN. Here at TriDot we are huge believers in using UCAN to fuel our training and racing. In the crowded field of nutrition companies, what separates UCAN from the pack is the science behind LIVSTEADY, the key ingredient in UCAN products. While most energy powders are filled with sugar or stimulants that cause a spike and crash, UCAN energy powders, powered by LIVSTEADY, deliver a steady release of complex carbs to give you stable blood sugar and provide long-lasting energy. I personally fuel many of my workouts with the orange-flavored Edge gel, but between their energy mix, energy bars, almond butter, and more, there is definitely a LIVSTEADY product that you will love. So head to their website, ucan.co and use the code TRIDOT to save 20% on your entire order. Once again, that’s ucan.co, promo code TRIDOT. The endurance community is composed of athletes who enjoy a wide array of physical activity. Triathletes obviously are attracted to the challenge and the variety of swim, bike, and run. But some folks just want to swim, some just want to bike. Some want to hike or climb, kayak, row, or ski. Some folks just want to go for a run, and for them, there is now RunDot. Now Jeff, Matt, often triathletes at least dabble in run-only events, sometimes with a goal, sometimes for just race-distance practice, and sometimes just to get some racing in when it’s too cold for a triathlon. For the two of you, what is your personal experience with run-only racing? Jeff Booher? Jeff: Well, I grew up playing all the ball sports and such, but I also ran track. I loved running track, did the decathlon a little bit. In the military, we did a lot of running there, and I entered several races. Even when I was a kid I did a 5K with my dad, and I remember that time, it was 25:25. I’m not sure how old I was, kind of young. Matt: I told you he’d remember the times, not the bib number. Jeff: I’ve only done one standalone marathon, and that was kind of funny. In the mid-90’s, I had an uncle on New Year’s Day, we were up together as a family. He said, “I’m gonna do the Cowtown 10K.” It was I think the third week in February, and I said, “I’m gonna do the marathon.” I had not been running at all. I ran 13 times, the 13th was the marathon. It hurt a little bit, but I got it done. Before that, everything other than a 5K was extreme distance. But it was fun. Andrew: Yeah, that was before Jeff Booher created the nSight Training Optimization Engine of TriDot. Jeff: Quite a bit. Yeah, don’t do it like that. Andrew: My relationship with running – I played soccer and tennis in high school and college. After college I was just trying to stay in shape, so I would just get off work and go for a run. Personally, doing races and events never really appealed to me. Why am I going to pay 40 or 50 bucks to go do a 5K at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning when I’m not a morning person? I can go run a 5K for free at whatever time I want to wake up on my own accord. So I just never did much. But there was a guy in our church whose company was sponsoring a 5K, so he was like, “Hey, use this code, you can enter it for free.” I was like, “Okay, well, it’s free, so let me go try this 5K.” That was the first time I did an organized, actual race event. It was in Arlington, Texas, right down the road from us. I went down there – I think I was third overall male, with like a 23-something-minute time – and it kind of gave me a glimpse of, “Wow, this is kind of neat to get on a course with other people and do this thing.” That was my one-and-only run race for a long time. Now I’ve done a handful of half-marathons, but for me it’s mostly been triathlon. Matt, I know you have quite a bit of running in your background. You’ve teased that a little bit in the intro. Your run pedigree certainly eclipses Jeff’s and mine. Tell us about your relationship with running over the years. Matt: First I’ll say it’s all relative. When you say my run pedigree eclipses you guys, that’s relative to you guys. But of course when I mention any times here, there’s probably going to be some 14-minute 5K guy out there thinking that I’m some chump. Which is true, it’s all relative. Andrew: What a chump! Lame! Matt: Yeah, but running is where it all started for me, back in middle school. I only joined the cross-country team and the track team because my friend peer-pressured me into doing so. I hated every minute of it. My mile time clocked in at a blistering nine minutes, where the only blistering that was happening was on the bottom of my feet. Blistering was certainly not referring to my pace. I was not particularly talented like your Meb Keflezighi or something, who I think in fifth grade ran like 5:10 or something crazy. I was definitely not that guy. But I kept doing it, because again, I was easily peer-pressured. Freshman year I tried slacking off as much as possible, but I still saw some improvement, and it got me wondering, “Hey, what if I actually tried?” I had a great coach named Rob Murray, who is still coaching at Danbury High School in Connecticut, just turning out All State and All American athletes like crazy. So I got down to 5:20 by the end of my freshman year, and made varsity by my junior year. I ran 15:53 for the 5K. By high school standards I was pretty good, but not great. I was All Conference, All State, but nothing more than that. I graduated, and I walked on the team at Penn State. I wasn’t recruited, I made the team by basically peaking for the time trial, which was part of the qualification process to make the team. But I hated it, I really didn’t like it at all, the team, the training. I got burned out, and I stopped running for about 2½ years. When I came back to it, I raced 5K’s, trying to break my old high school PR. I raced at Princeton a couple times, where I got annihilated by the legitimate college runners, many of whom lapped me once or even twice. I only ever ran 16:05, and that’s when I was getting lapped once or twice, that’s how fast those guys are. But it got me in shape to prepare for my first marathon, which I ran in Baltimore 2008. I ran 2:54, and then I got started in triathlons in 2010. Once I started doing triathlon, I was really using the pure running events throughout my triathlon career to improve my run in triathlon. One of the things I noticed was that in running terms, I was kind of a chump compared to a lot of the other runners out there. But in the triathlon world, I noticed my run was actually really good, I was one of the fastest runners in the entire field. That was really encouraging to me, knowing if I could make my swim and bike faster, then I could potentially be pretty darn good at triathlon. I ran the New York City Marathon in 2011, the Philly Marathon in 2014 where I ran my PR of 2:42, and a whole slew of other 5Ks, Turkey Trots, half marathons, and all those sorts of races along the way. A lot of it, like I said, was just prepping for doing better in triathlons. Andrew: Yeah, I have never wanted to do a marathon. In a lot of ways, I still don’t have the desire to do a marathon. My only marathon in my entire life was the marathon that took place in my one Ironman, and I think that’s the case for some triathletes, that’s the only way they’re ever going to run that long. It was during the training for that, leading up to Ironman Waco, that I was starting to run 2 hours, 2½ hours at a time, and I was like, “I wonder what my marathon time would be all on its own?” So I’m sure eventually I’ll break down and do a standalone marathon. I haven’t don’t it yet. But it’s interesting to hear the background on running for you guys as we dive into talking more about running and RunDot today. Jeff, as we get into the origin story for RunDot, the origin story for TriDot we captured on Episode .01 of the TriDot podcast. It’s still out there, still being listened to. It is our eighth most-listened-to episode of all time, even with all of the interesting episodes we have out now. Jeff, where in this journey as a company did you have the idea for RunDot? Hit us with the origin story for this new app that’s launching. Jeff: It’s funny, I didn’t have the name RunDot, I didn’t have a timeline on the app, but it was very, very early on. Probably I knew that there would be something. I didn’t know what it would be called, but I knew there would be a RunDot at the same time I knew there would be a TriDot. In my initial research, going all the way to 2004, 2005, as I started it at about 2008 or 2009, I realized that in tackling the triathlon training problem, with these different disciplines, that we really had to make the technology so granular that we were going to be able to optimize health, fitness, and performance. So if we ingested data, we could optimize based on that, so I knew it was a matter of time. It's kind of like the Amazon analogy: Amazon started out selling books and DVDs. They didn’t say, “When do we sell treadmills, and then when do we sell tires?” They optimized the supply chain, so now anything can go through. That’s what we started doing. We filed our first patent in 2011, so all the way back then we knew. It didn’t make financial sense to invest so much into just a single sport niche of triathlon. But if we approached it in the way, played the long game where we invest in the advanced analytics, the machine learning, all the things that need to take place to optimize triathlon training, then we could do that. We could optimize the improvement in health, fitness, and performance, regardless of the sport, if we had the right data. Matt: That’s one of the things that I’ve admired about you, Jeff, even before starting working here, is just the fact that you’re patient. You’ve never broken into a market earlier than you felt it was the right time. Like you said, you’re in it for the long game, you are patient. It’s like, “Okay, we’re not going to break into international markets until we’re ready to do so. We’re not going to break into the running market until we’re ready to do so.” You’ve really taken the time and made TriDot, the optimization and technology behind it, so robust and powerful and effective that now it’s just a very natural progression for us to move into pure running. Andrew: My journey with TriDot started in 2019, Matt’s journey with TriDot started in 2021. So we’re still relatively young in our relationship with TriDot, purely as a company, compared to you. As the founder, you’ve been there since Day One. You are 18 years into your journey, your relationship with this thing that is TriDot. What emotions go through you? How excited are you? Can you even quantify it for us, just seeing our company put out a new app in a totally different space? Jeff: It’s really exciting. Predictive Fitness is the name of the company that builds the brands. So while these different initiatives are on a road map – we’re doing some stuff with the Department of Defense, the Army, and these other areas – each one of them is really cool. But running specifically is massive, because it touches so many people. There are so many people who run. It’s so approachable. You don’t need much more than shoes to do it, but it is one of the most injury-prone activities. So many people love it, but with the beatings. There’s just so many positives of being able to apply the technology here, and have something specifically for runners. It does feel surreal, and my wife Jennifer is oftentimes the one that points that out to me. I kind of have my head down, and the progress is so incremental you don’t see it. But she’ll say, “Look, remember when you said this? That was just three years ago!” The team as well, we have a massive team of fifteen-something engineers now working on this. What they can contribute is unbelievable. My secret to success I guess is hiring people more talented and smarter than I am. It’s pretty cool. Andrew: Matt and I are certainly a part of those talented people you’ve hired along the way, isn’t that right? Jeff: Absolutely! We have a great team, you guys are standout stellar, for sure. But back to your original question you posed, I look at it also a little differently. You mentioned this new app, it’s not really a new app. It’s based on 18 years of data, and the IP, and the things that we’ve been doing painstakingly, going through the process of perfecting and maturing the technology. So I feel like it’s not a new app in some ways. It's a new app and a brand new market that we’re going after, and introducing ourselves to a new market, but in one sense it’s not. It’s something that’s proven and time-tested, in generating those results for triathletes, and a ton of triathletes that just run for long periods of time, where they’re just runners. Matt: Jeff, you did it the hard way. Instead of starting with running, which is one...

There are many health and wellness modalities that can improve triathlon performance. Among them, Yoga is a practice that can benefit both the mind and body of a triathlete. On this episode, TriDot Coaches (and Yoga enthusiasts) Brandy Ramirez, Kurt Madden, and Joanna Nami teach Andrew the ways of the Yogi lifestyle. They touch on the different types of Yoga, how Yoga can fit into a triathlete's training routine, and what poses are most beneficial. So breathe in, breathe out, fire up this episode, and get ready to improve your triathlon performance through Yoga! At TriDot, we trust 2Toms to keep us moving! 2Toms provides revolutionary products to prevent issues from chafing, blisters, odors and sweat. To make the switch to 2Toms, head to Medi-Dyne.com and use the code “TRIDOT” to save 20 percent on your entire order.

You know that recovery is an important part of training. But what exactly should you be doing for recovery? With so many supplements and gadgets on the market, what lives up to the hype and is worth your money? On today's episode, Sport Scientist Dr. Krista Austin returns to the show to help cut through the noise and provide the facts about recovery-promoting products. Dr. Austin, along with host Andrew Harley and Coach Elizabeth James discuss 11 top recovery boosters. Learn if CBD, Ketones, Beet Root, and BCAA's may be helpful for you. Also, how do whole-food nutrition, proper hydration, and restful sleep play into your recovery? Your best performances await with these "boosters." Big thanks to Precision Fuel & Hydration for partnering with us on this episode! Head over to precisionfuelandhydration.com and check out the Fuel Planner to get your free personalized fuel and hydration strategy. Use the code TRI23 to get 10% off your first order.