Troubleshooting 7 Common Race-Day Bike Problems

Since the bike leg is the longest part of a triathlon, plenty can go wrong while out on course. Coach Kurt Madden brings his coaching and racing experience to the podcast to help us troubleshoot the seven most common issues athletes may face during the bike portion of the race. From mechanical and tech failures to nutrition and the saddle discomfort, we cover it all! This episode will help ease those race-day bike fears and help you have a confident ride in the saddle.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This is the Tridot podcast.
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fewer injuries.
Our podcast is here toeducate, inspire and entertain.
We'll talk all thingstriathlon with expert coaches and

(00:25):
special guests.
Join the conversation andlet's improve together.
Together.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hey, everyone.
Welcome to the Tri Dot podcast.
This is part two of a serieswe are doing helping you, our athletes,
troubleshoot all of the commonproblems that might happen to you

(00:48):
when you're out on thetriathlon race course.
And today we are talking aboutbike problems.
There's a lot of stuff thatcan go down when you're on the bike
leg of a race.
It's the longest portion of a race.
And so here to help ustroubleshoot the seven common race
day bike problems is coachKurt Madden.
Now, Kurt has three top 10finishes at the Ironman World Championships

(01:10):
and 51 full distance Ironman finishes.
So you talk about a guy who'sbeen on the race course a lot and
has encountered some problems.
He also has a master's degreein exercise physiology and is the
head of coach development for Tridot.
Andrew, it's great to be back.
I'm pumped up.
I grabbed another CO2 justbefore we started here to make sure

(01:31):
I'm read to go in case Iencounter a bike issue.
Well, I'm Andrew, the averagetriathlete, voice of the people and
captain of the middle of the pack.
As always.
We'll get started with ourwarmup question with me and Kurt
kicking that around, we'll getinto our main set conversation troubleshooting
the seven common race day bike problems.
And we'll end the show withour cooldown where coach Kurt will

(01:51):
answer an audience question.
Lots of good stuff.
Let's get to it.
Time to warm up.
Let's get moving.
So, to warm us up for thisbike conversation, Kurt, I.
I'm curious, in all the racingyou have done, what is the biggest

(02:14):
race day problem youpersonally have encountered during
the bike portion of a race?
I will give you full credit, Andrew.
You stumped me on this one.
I had to.
Really?
You did.
All.
All of your bike legs havegone perfectly.
No, no major issues.
Oh, come on now.
I had to really kind of takestock on.
Okay, which one was the bestbiggest race day problem?

(02:35):
I've had so many.
I had to kind of sort them out.
But I think I kind of selectedthis one for a certain reason.
This was in 2019.
I was in the ultraman World Championship.
And for our listeners, this isa truly ultra distance event that
somehow I was in the firstgroup in 1983.
And it's a three day triparound the entire big island of Hawaii.

(02:59):
So you swim 6 points, 6.2miles or a 10k, you bike 90 miles,
you're on the other side ofthe island.
On day two, you bike 175miles, climb 8,000ft.
And then day three, you've gota very special treats.
You get to run a 52.4 ordouble marathon from this little
place called Hobby where theyserve great coffee.

(03:20):
And it's a turnaround in theIronman all the way back to Kona.
So day one went really, really well.
I think I came out of thewater fourth.
I had no issues on the bike.
I climbed a descent, I wentthrough wind, I went through rain,
I through everything you could imagine.
And I had to climb last 15miles up to a place called Volcano,
where Kilauea is.

(03:40):
So we're at 5,000ft.
The plan on day two was tohave an epic bike ride with no issues
at all.
It was only 100, only 175 miles.
So you can imagine I amliterally at the starting line with
not enough clothes on.
Someone in the sport that weknow, Bob Babbitt, a longtime friend,
tells me, coach K, you lookreally cold.

(04:01):
Put my jacket on.
I says, bob, not an issue.
And I threw his jacket on.
We start off the first fivemiles in a group.
And keep in mind with theUltraman, your crew kind of leapfrogs.
And within five miles we hit adownhill descent and it starts to
rain.
So you're traveling 35 to 40miles an hour in a group and you've
got a lot of debris on the road.

(04:22):
And all of a sudden, boom.
I get a rear flap.
Not really fatal until youactually have to dismount.
People don't wait for you.
They are gone.
And the long and the short ofit is I was trying to really get
the CO2 adapter onto the stem.
The stem broke.
My crew was not there.
Now I'm really toast becauseI'm in an area they can't get to

(04:44):
me.
There's not a lot of support.
But the long and the short ofit is it took about 10 to 15 minutes
for someone to help me to haveanother tube to get it back in order.
But you can imagine that that15 minutes seemed like 15 hours.
Yeah, because now I'm in areally good spot to.
Oh my gosh.
No one literally waited for me.

(05:06):
So for the next 169 miles, Iliterally burned matches all day
long playing catch up.
And as I continued to climband descend, I felt a little bit
better.
When other athletes told me,don't feel bad, I've already had
two or three flats.
And I said, oh my gosh, thatis just terrible.
So sorry to hear that.
So that was epic because itjust, headspace wise, my entire strategy

(05:30):
just went out the window.
Yeah, so it was just one ofthose flat days, right, with, with
the rain and the debris on theroad and you, you got caught out
in the wrong spot at the righttime with a broken stem.
But I mean, thankful thatsomeone came along that could help
you with it.
Right.
Even 10, 15 minutes later,this answer for me, Kurt, thankfully,
was not during an Ultraman.
It was not during a Ironman oreven a 70.3.

(05:53):
So far, all of my bike legsduring my longer races have largely
gone fine.
This is during a sprint.
I did the sprint at PTO Dallasa few years ago.
The PTO organization, which Ithink is now rebranded, came through
Dallas and did a race in theDallas Metroplex.
And I, you know, Kurt, Ihadn't raced in a while, you know,

(06:15):
I was training, but I waskinda like, oh, it's just a sprint
down the road, about 15 minutes.
You know, I don't need to dotoo much prep for this one.
And so I just, I didn't botherto charge the Di2 shifting, electronic
shifting on my bike.
I didn't think about it, youknow that when you charge that, it's
not like a Garmin where youhave to charge it every day.
Right.
You charge your Di2 every sixmonths and you're good for six months.
And it just so happened my Di2died at like mile two or three on

(06:39):
this sprint triathlon.
So, you know, it was a 14, 15mile bike leg.
So I just had about a 13 milebike ride in one gear.
The gear I was stuck ingraciously, it wasn't a hard gear,
it was a pretty easy gear.
The downside to that was Icouldn't really go very fast because
I was just stuck in a, in apretty easy gear, just spinning out

(07:00):
all the way around the bike course.
And by the time I got on therun course, man, there wasn't very
many people behind me.
Kurt.
Uh, I was, I was playing catchup by then, but that's the biggest
problem I've ever had and itwas kind of self inflicted.
So if you, if you're out thereand you have electronic shifting,
check, check that batteryLevel before any race, not just your
major A races, people.
You don't want to get caughtout like I did.

(07:21):
Well, we're going to throwthis question out to you, our audience,
like we always do.
We'll put this on the TRAcommunity hub.
We'll put this on the I amtrying to Facebook group and we'll
put this on the Trot Instagrambecause we want to hear your stories.
What is the biggest race dayproblem you personally have encountered
during the bike portion of a race?
On to the main set going inthree, two, one.

(07:48):
All right, onto our main setwhere Coach Kurt is going to talk
to us about these how totroubleshoot, what to do if you encounter
any of the seven most commonbike problems that you could have
on race day.
Now, there's so many thingsthat could go wrong during a race.
You know, we can't cover everysingle possibility, but we think

(08:09):
we've come up with a prettysolid list of the things that are
most likely to happen whenyou're on the bike.
And Kurt, the first one, we'regoing to start with common bike problem
number one.
This goes straight to yourstory from the warm up question and
really mine as well, to be honest.
Mechanical issues and the mostcommon ones here are getting a flat
tire, dropping a chain, orgetting stuck in one ring or one

(08:33):
gear.
Coach Kurt, if we're out onthe course on race day and we have
a mechanical, what do we do?
Well, the thing that I havelearned over years and years and
years of swimming, biking andrunning is that I think to be proactive
as compared to reactive, as Ilook back on where I've come up short

(08:54):
and being very objective.
So I want to echo this to allof our listeners.
Be proactive rather than reactive.
Really do your due diligencewith all of your gear.
And I find in doing that andreally kind of being ocd, that every
single little fine detailneeds to be on point.
That's going to prevent manyof those problems.

(09:16):
However, there are going to bedays when you're out there.
And what I've learned, mostimportantly is to try to manage it,
whatever it might be.
And let's go through kind ofthe examples.
You know, if I look at asituation where a person has a flat
tire, it sounds relatively easy.

(09:37):
It's like, okay, I know what Ineed to do.
I need to definitely get thetire off.
I need to get the tube out.
I need to put another tube in.
Be very careful that I don'tpinch it.
Insert that CO2 if you'restill using a pump.
You can use that too.
It's sometimes easier with twopeople, but I've learned in doing
that you've got to go really,really slow.

(09:58):
Now, here's where issues startto surface.
Let's say you've got your gearon your bike, you've got your spare
tube, you've got your extraCO2 or two.
There's only one problem.
You haven't looked at thistube in many weeks or many months,
and in your mind you'rethinking, I am good to go.
Well, that tire, if it hasn'tbeen taken out recently and do a

(10:20):
complete inventory, you justdon't know.
Even with the CO2.
I recently had a session wherewe had a couple CO2s.
I pulled one out and I didn'teven realize, oh, guess what, this
one's already been used.
So getting your race day geartotally dialed in and spending more
than enough time doing that isgoing to be really, really, really

(10:41):
important.
So that is the first thingthat I would say.
And also depending upon your,your setup, and again, if you're
using tubulars or you're goingtubeless, that sealant should be
Updated in Current vs well, Ihaven't ridden on these in a while
and I'll kind of see what happens.
And then all of a suddenyou're losing air.
So those are things that youdefinitely want to check out.

(11:01):
The other thing too, when.
So with your, your issue witha flat tire, the thing that I've
seen too is really know yourtires and your, your tube setup.
So I know that I use aContinental 5000.
It is an extremely tight fitand you have to have hands of steel
to just break that seal to getit open.
So just make sure you knowthat going into that rate versus

(11:24):
I hope and pray that I don'tflap because I'm not going to be
in a good situation.
So that, that's with that flap.
But be patient, take yourtime, get some water, do the best
you can, and go slowly versusgoing too fast.
Because many times when we gotoo fast, we're going to make a mistake.
So if you pinch a tube, thenyou're toast and then you're out
of CO2s and you're in a badspot with dropping the chain.

(11:46):
I remember this one vividly,Andrew, and I think you were at this
race.
It was the Tulsa.
I was there.
Yeah.
Not racing.
To be clear, I was there cheering.
No, but brother, you were there.
And that was a wet, wet, wet nights.
It was a wet, wet, wet day.
And I Hadn't really riddenthat course too much.
But I think because of thewetness and the rain and everything

(12:07):
else, I think I dropped mychain at least three times.
The thing I've learned is thatideally, again, for any athletes
that is going to get on acourse where you're going to have
some climbing and you know forsure you're going to have to utilize
that small chain ring.
Riding those sections nice andeasy, really, really important, and
going very, very easy to getthat chain to move over versus God,

(12:29):
I'm pumping adrenaline, I'mmaxing out my watts, and boom, that
chain flies off.
Then you've got to get off thebike to get back on.
And if you're on an incline ofsay 4 to 6%, the one problem is you
probably won't be able to clipback in.
So then you've got to go allthe way back down and start that
again.
So that's something that Ithink would be really, really, really

(12:50):
important.
And then you go to thescenario that you talked about.
That gosh darn chain justwon't move.
Well, that is rough.
It kind of depends.
I had this again on a veryunique situation in Kona.
I think it was 20, 21 again.
It rained all night long.

(13:11):
And everything on the bike.
Soon to be a okay until I gotto mile 100.
And at mile 100, with 12 milesto go, I was stuck in one gear.
And when I was stuck in onegear, it was a gear that I didn't
need because I couldn't spinat 150rpms to keep moving.
And as crowds of peoplecontinue to go by me and say, are

(13:33):
you okay, Andrew?
I actually put up the rightfinger, one finger to say, yes, I
am.
Yeah.
Because at that point Icouldn't do much.
And again, I, I think withelectronic shifters, you're kind
of stuck.
Back in the day when we hadmore cables, you could kind of pull
on a cable and move it over byhand, but it wasn't happening.

(13:54):
And I, I think for me that wasfatal because I probably lost 15
minutes right there on race day.
And then another story kind of connected.
But I think our listeners will appreciate.
I was on a training ride.
I was 50 miles from home.
I did not have cell phone service.
I was off the grid and mychain got stuck on a hill.

(14:15):
When I got off the bike tofind out what the problem was, the
plastic tab on top that keepsthe contact for it to make contact
so you can shift.
The plastic tab actually broke.
And I'm like, oh, my Gosh, howdid that happen?
I think it was just tension.
It was just time.
So, again, for our listeners,when you look at your bike, anticipate

(14:36):
those things.
What I had to do was stay inthat gear, hoping and praying I could
find some type of convenience store.
And somebody high above in thesky was watching over me to say,
two miles later, I rolled intothis convenience store and I was
loaded for bear.
I wasn't leaving the storeuntil I found duct tape and I let

(14:57):
the person know at the counterI was able to get the only roll of
duct tape.
I went out and I duct tapedeverything to hope and pray that
I could get home.
It was again, over 50 milesand I was able to use, I think, three
or four gears.
So I dealt with it and managedit on that day.
But long term is I had to getthat little part replaced.

(15:19):
And I share with my bikeMcKenna, if that would have happened
on race day, that could havebeen fatal.
So maintain that gear, beproactive, don't be reactive.
And talking about the gettingstuck in a gear, a different manifestation
of that in Kona a couple yearsago, coach Joanna Namy, who actually
was on our last podcastepisode talking about the swim, same
thing, helping us troubleshootthe seven most common swim problems

(15:42):
in Kona.
She got out on the bike courseand her electronic shifting wasn't
shifting, and she knew she hadcharged it, like there was no reason
why this shouldn't be happening.
And so she's literally just atan aid station stuck.
And a couple of people went bythat she knew, and they checked on
her and no one could figureout why is this shifting, not shifting.

(16:03):
And then finally a mechaniccame through and he's helping her
with her bike.
One of the race mechanicsthankfully found her and it dawned
on him, oh, you flew here.
You have the model electronic shifting.
You have has like an airplanesleep mode.
And so apparently herelectronics on its own had triggered,

(16:25):
or maybe it was her bike shop,I'm forgetting the details, but her
electronic shifting was putinto travel mode so that the battery
wouldn't wear out while it was traveling.
And so her electronic shiftingwas more or less turned off.
And there was like a certainsequence of buttons you had to press
to wake it back up.
And then she was fine the restof the race.
But had that mechanic notfound her and known that she would
have been really stuck.

(16:46):
And so really, Kurt, like,like you said in the beginning, know
your gear, know your tires,know your tubes, know your setup,
know what's in that flat kit,know how to use it you know, know
how your chain works.
Um, you know, and thatknowledge is power.
Cause that knowledge is if youknow your gear and you know the condition
of your gear and you know whatmight happen to your gear once you're
out on the race course.
You can do exactly what coach,what coach Kurt is talking about.

(17:08):
Stay calm, stay cool, staycollected, troubleshoot the problem
and then hopefully get moving again.
So Kurt, onto common bikeproblem number two.
And this is tech failures.
So, so th, this is, this isprobably my warmup story right where
my Di2 wasn't working becauseit's just a failure of technology
in this case I didn't charge it.

(17:28):
But if somebody has their bikecomputer isn't working, their watch
isn't working, maybe theirpower meter just didn't connect to
their power pedals orsomething didn't connect to the Garmin.
For you to read your wattage,there's a number of tech issues that
can go wrong and suddenly youdon't have the data you're used to
having.
What do we do in that scenariowhen we're counting on that tech

(17:50):
to work on race day?
This is somewhat similar toour previous question that you want
to be proactive than reactive.
And what I want to share withlisteners that I've learned is that
we spend so much time trainingand prepping and honestly and objectively
we want to spend time toschedule the finish.
And what I mean by thatschedule the finish.

(18:12):
It's like you're kind ofteeing everything up to have the
best bike possible with noissues at all.
Spend time doing that versusit gets really hectic the day before
the race.
The whole day is just consumedwith drop off pickup.
But spend the time to makesure you can double triple check
all of your boxes.
And I know when I travel thefirst thing I do is unpack my bike,

(18:34):
get my wheels on.
I ride it around even inparking lot.
If there's anything at allthat I think is not right, you know,
take it and, and and have abike tech personal look it over from
head to toe, pay what you needto pay to have that peace of mind.
So let's kind of go throughthe things that might happen.
The first issue might be justyour computer.
For whatever reason it wasworking fine at home.

(18:57):
You're, you're good to gobefore the race.
Everything appears to be goodbut if it's not good, you've got
to get it taken care of.
I remember being at a race in,in California called Vineman and
you can and our listeners canAppreciate this.
I'll keep it light because itwas somewhat painful.
You're with your spouse,you're going to drop your bike off.
And when you say, I'll beright back, you should never say,

(19:19):
I'll be right back.
Because these two guys spentover two hours, two bike mechanics,
on my bike, to get everythingto calibrate.
The temperature got warmer andwarmer and warmer.
And I'm running back and forthand my wife's asking me, are you
ready yet?
No, we're not ready yet.
So I had to eat a littlehumble pie.
They spent two hours and theyhad SRAM on the phone.
They're telling me, I'm reallysorry, I can't, I can't do it.

(19:42):
So then you're like, okay,here's my reality.
At least I know that this isnot going to work, so I'm not going
to see my power.
However, on race morning,while I was literally in the bathroom
doing my business, anotherbike person sent me a video on YouTube.
And in three minutes, when Ifollowed the YouTube, guess what?
The power meter all of asudden worked.
However, if you're out on thebike course and all of a sudden you

(20:05):
lose that data, the firstthing to do is don't panic.
You need to always think abouttechnology is awesome, but you need
plan A, plan B, plan C, havethree or four parachutes on your
back.
And ladies and gentlemen, nosurprise what I'm going to say.
It goes back to one thing weall have.
It's called rpe, or your rateof perceived effort.

(20:25):
And sometimes in yourtraining, it's good to cover your
bike computer, to know yourpower, to know your heart rate, to
know how fast you'retraveling, because if and when it's
going to happen, you are toast.
It could even be your chest strap.
That's very common.
All of a sudden, the batteryjust dies.
You've got no heart rate data.
You've got to go back to yourtraining, all the reps you have in

(20:47):
to make sure that it's good to go.
So that is something you needto be really mindful of versus I'm
really dependent upon my technology.
It has to come through for me.
And if I don't have itworking, I'm going to lose a head
gasket or just my whole raceplan goes out the window for an athlete.
Just remember that's going to happen.

(21:07):
So just continue to do thebest with your gear, look over it,
do the very best you can.
And if and when it happens onrace day, you just really have to
Manage it.
I wish I could say this is a1, 2, 3, and you should be fine,
but you just got to go aheadand do that.
Yeah.
The couple things I'll addhere, Kurt.
We actually had a podcastepisode just a few months ago at

(21:28):
the time we're recording this,where Try to Coach Will Usher was
on the episode, and we weretalking about working out without
technology.
Like Train without Tech wasthe title of the episode.
Is there an occasion whereit's beneficial to go out and train
without your watch, withoutyour power, without your whatever,
whatever?
And in my head, when I wascrafting the episode, it was like,

(21:50):
okay, there's probably somebenefit throughout the season to
do some sessions like that.
And Will made a great point.
He was like, you can stilltake the tech and like you just said,
just cover up the garment orjust put your watch in your back
pocket instead of having it onyour wrist and have some experiences
where you're doing thetraining off of rpe, off of the way
you're feeling, but you'restill collecting the data.

(22:12):
So it uploads to tridot andyou see how the workout went.
Right?
And the Try tech is able tocalibrate your upcoming workouts
based on how the workout went.
And so, yeah, that's anotherbenefit here, right?
Doing some training sessionswhere you're going off of how you
feel, so that if that techfails on race day, you kind of have
a sense of, okay, I've donethis before.

(22:32):
I've gauged my effort and howmy body feels.
I've been in tune with how mybody feels on a workout before, and
I'm just going to pace thisrace day with that knowledge and
that experience.
So, really like you pointingthat out.
Kurt, the other scenarios wetalk about, you know, just tech failures,
there could be times I thinkwe've all encountered, especially
when we're running, thatyou're looking at heart rate and

(22:53):
you're like, wait a minute,this doesn't seem to be right.
And Andrew, I tell stories.
I don't know why you alwaysseem to be there when these things
happen.
I don't know if it's your auraor what.
I need to stop coming to theraces where you race.
Kurt is.
I know.
Well, you've been there enoughto know that, hey, stuff happens
on race day.
So this is in St.
George, remember, at the world Championship?
Yes, sir.
You remember that day vividly.
So we had a cold swim.

(23:14):
We're on the bike.
The first half wasn't too bad.
It got really warm and really windy.
I think I was like at mile 80or 90 going, oh, my goodness, this
is the real deal.
So now we get to startclimbing Snow Canyon.
So I saw John Mayfield, likeat about mile 95, and he's like,
oh, I think you're in secondplace by six minutes.
And I'm thinking, okay, I'vegot to climb Snow Canyon.

(23:34):
And for our listeners, if youwant an epic experience, definitely
go to St.
George.
Even though this, yeah, it's a good.
Climb, it's an awesome climb.
So I started climbing up that grade.
I think I'm approaching mile100 and I'm looking at my heart rate
on the computer.
It goes from like I'm in,usually in the zone.
My, my ceiling's like 135ish.
I know I shouldn't go over that.
All of a sudden, Andrew, itspikes to 2:44.

(23:57):
I just about lost it.
I'm like, oh my gosh, that islike 100 beats over.
Am I dead?
Dear Lord, I have, I have sinned.
I have sinned.
And if you're going to take menow, I am definitely way off the
charts.
I felt okay climbing, but it's rough.
It was hot, but it literallygot into my head.
So when I got to the very top,finally, for that nice long descent,

(24:19):
I'm thinking, what just happened?
How can my heart rate be at 244?
I didn't feel as though I was hyperventilating.
So for our listeners know,sometimes you can look at data.
It's not perfect, but take stock.
And safety always comes first.
I think, honestly, if my heartrate was that high, that, that, that

(24:40):
would have been it.
They would have called themedics and said, hey, this guy's
done.
So just know that it's goingto be inaccurate at times.
And even on the run we seethat just with satellites, you could
be running at say a 8:30 pace.
All of a sudden it drops downto 7:20 or it goes to 10 minutes.
No need to panic.
Use your RPE and just maintainyour focus.
Yeah.
One more thing, Kurt.
With these technology tools, right?

(25:01):
And I think people get caughtout on this more so with the bike
than the run.
Because.
Because we all get outdoors,put our, put our multi sport watch
on our wrist and go for a run.
And know how that piece oftech works in the field where a lot
of cyclists these days, a lotof triathletes, especially when you're
doing your training indoors onthe trainer, which I'm a big fan
of.
I do most of my rides on the trainer.

(25:21):
Indoors.
But because of that, I don'thave as much practice with.
Okay.
When I go outdoors for a ride,is my Garmin bike computer or my
Garmin wristwatch, is itconnecting to my power meter and
my heart rate strap?
And are those connections happening?
And if not, why not?
And so suddenly I'm out on arun on a race course, and I haven't
done a ride outdoors in acouple months and things aren't connecting

(25:43):
and working the way they'resupposed to.
Well, okay, I probably shouldhave gotten outside a little bit
before, a little bit moreoften in training to make sure it's
all connecting.
So I'll just point that out.
If, you know, you're atriathlete that does most of your,
your bike training indoors,get outside with all of your race
day tech and, and beexperienced with how the buttons
work, how the connectionswork, how to troubleshoot it if they

(26:04):
don't work.
And then hopefully you don'thave this problem on race day because
you have that experience.
Common bike problem number three.
This is weather related, right?
You get out on the bike andsometimes some wild winds can sweep
up.
Sometimes it can startstorming or start raining, depending
on the length of your race.
You're usually out there onthe bike for a while.
So the weather ebbs and flows.

(26:24):
Sometimes this is expected.
You knew in the forecast thismight happen.
And sometimes it can catch youby surprise.
You didn't know it was goingto get chilly, you didn't know it
was going to get windy, andall of a sudden it did.
So coach Kurt, riding thebike, some wild weather comes around
unexpected or not.
How can we handle riding inthose kind of conditions?
This is a tough one.

(26:44):
And this is something that wehave to, again, be objective to say,
I cannot control the weather.
I have to manage it.
And there are days when MotherNature is going to win and just leave
it at that.
So let's kind of focus on two things.
Let's start with wind, andthen we'll definitely go to rain.
So we know that always.
And I'm going to say thisprofessionally, that wind is our

(27:07):
friend.
There's always wind, unlessyou're kind of inside, but maybe
with a fan on, you still havea little bit of wind.
If there's no wind and you'retraveling 28 miles an hour, you're
going to have wind that's, Ithink, called air resistance.
You're creating your own wind.
Yeah.
If I go back to twoexperiences, how I managed it, I'm
going to go back to last year.

(27:27):
In Texas, it was a very, very,very windy day.
So people that have doneTexas, you know where I'm going to
go with this.
And people that haven't be prepared.
But we can see it.
The gusts were supposed to belike 30 plus miles an hour.
And as we know, we head southon that toll road that we're going
to have went.
So you've got to say, okay, Icannot change this at all.

(27:49):
But what I'm going to do isI'm going to remain very calm.
I'm going to follow my plan.
I'm going to watch my power,I'm going to watch my heart rate.
And I've got 20 miles of hell.
And as I look at 20 miles ofhell, it's going to get rough, but
I'm going to break it up intofive mile sections.
I'm going to stay an arrow.
I'm going to watch my cadence.
I'm going to go back to justfundamentals and just ride it out.

(28:11):
And you get to mile five, it'skind of like doing an FTP.
It's.
Instead of 20 minutes, it's 20 miles.
Okay?
There's five, there's 10.
I've only got 10 more miles.
But the real cool thing iswhen you get to the turnaround now
you have something that,remember, it's called tailwind.
And then that's almost like adrug because you're traveling 32
miles an hour, you're spun out.

(28:32):
Your cadence is just keepingyou in a good spot.
Your power is down, you're notpushing too hard, your heart rate's
in a good spot.
So now you have to say, and Ionly have one more to go.
But it's that mental thing.
Wait, I was traveling 30 milesan hour, so I've got to turn around
one more time.
And now I'm only traveling 15.
But it's the exact same waythe second time.

(28:52):
It's maybe every 5k.
I'm breaking that up, breakingthat up, breaking that up, and then
again, once you turn around,you're fine.
So stay calm, stay within yourzones for your power, your heart
rate.
Stay an arrow, and you shouldbe fine.
And I know for me, even afterthat race, I think three days later,
my core was so so.
And I couldn't figure out thatI was in Arrow for like five hours

(29:15):
in that position.
So that was a story that Iremember for Texas.
But we've got to go back tothe big islands because we do have
the wild winds of Waikoloa,the famous.
Crosswinds that Blow peopleoff the road.
Literally.
Literally.
I mean I've got footage, I'veseen it all, but I can remember back
in the 80s of just racing it.

(29:37):
Back then we didn't have a lotof technology.
It was a road bike head downand you know you're riding on the
flats, you're in this smallchain ring, you are going seven miles
an hour on a flat and asyou're actually racing and I would
take stock on people that youhear a wide variety of words and
phrases and cuss words.

(29:59):
Yeah, sure.
And I'm thinking it's okay.
Hey, the wind is our friend.
Aloha bra.
How are you?
I mean not trying to be awiseacre but just trying to deal
with it and know that.
And I remember that vividly.
But again I couldn't control it.
And I also remember back tothe Ultraman in 2019.
I'm in a place called Waimeaat 2,500ft in elevation.

(30:22):
It's rainy, it's 60 degrees.
We've got 40 mile an hourcrosswinds coming off the Kohala
mountain.
I've got my crew behind me ona downhill section.
The best I could do is 10miles an hour because I was going
to get blown off my bike.
Once I got to the bottom downby Kauai High, I had to make a right
hand turn and I had headwindfor the last 20 miles of 175 mile

(30:46):
bike leg where my crew had torun up next to me to give me water,
to give me gels, topractically feed me because I could
not keep my hands off the handlebars.
I would have crashed.
So keep in mind that wind isugly, it's nasty, but it's not forever.
Now the other element is rain.

(31:06):
If you haven't encounteredrain yet, you're going to encounter
rain.
We talked about the Ironmanand Tulsa.
It rained all night long.
When I got to T1, I wiped mybike off because that's what I do.
And I'm like why would I wipemy bike off?
Because it's going to get wetall again.
But it rained all day long andyou have water coming up, you have
water coming from the side,you have water coming down.

(31:27):
I remember vividly there'sstill a video in my head.
I'm traveling on a downhill atmile 100 at 40 miles an hour in the
RA and a truck is comingdirectly at me and I'm thinking,
oh my goodness Lord, if youneed to take me, take me now.
But hopefully you won't.
But I got through that.
So safety was a real concern.
Know also too that I didIronman Canada.

(31:48):
When it rained all day long,you're at elevation, just the shivering,
the dexterity, you couldn'tgrab your bottle.
Want to play it really,really, you know, safe on that with
the rain.
So something is, is alwaysgoing to happen out there.
And I remember one more race.
It was called the Lead man.
It was up in Oregon and itrained all day long.
I was definitely underdressed.

(32:09):
I was so cold at mile 70, Iactually went into a porta potty
for three minutes just to getwarm to come back out and get back
on my bike.
But I wanted to be really,really safe.
As I came in a T2, my handswere so frozen I couldn't get my
bike helmet off.
I think in some cases, if youknow it's going to happen, you can

(32:30):
have a jacket with you or onyou or in a pocket or in a saddlebag.
If you're out there and youget caught up in it and the temperature
drops and you don't have anyof those things, is it just press
on and barrel your way through it?
Not necessarily.
And this is why I think thatthere's days where you feel very
driven, that you want to bethe hero.

(32:50):
But there's some days and it'shard to do that.
You just have to face themusic to say no.
Because if you can't controlthe bike and you're on a downhill,
that's just a safety concern.
That, that's.
That's something that now youneed to call it.
Then the other thing too,that's really a challenge when you
have wind and, or rain, isyou've got to think about your caloric
intake.

(33:11):
I know at Ironman California acouple of years ago, it was so windy,
people had the same situationI had when I was an Ultraman that
they were not eating or drinking.
And you can really get behind.
So, you know, when you getbehind on your fluids, your electrolytes,
everything as far as yourcalories go, you're going to put
yourself in a bad spot.
So it's a judgment call, butthere's always going to be another

(33:32):
race versus I will die on this hill.
I think the thing that Kurt,that I remind myself when I'm out
in weather like that on raceday, I remind myself that everybody's
facing it right?
And, and sure, it is possiblygoing to derail me from a certain
time I would like to achieve,but it's not.
It's derailing everybodyequally and it's not putting me,

(33:53):
you know, at a disadvantagewith my competition.
It's not.
I'm not the only one out theresuffering in this, in this bad luck
of weather.
What we're all, all in ittogether, right out there on course
in the wind and the rain.
And I try to remind myself of that.
If you're ever on a bike in arace and you have wind, you have
weather, you have rain, andyou know for sure that you approach

(34:14):
an athlete or you see anathlete that is in really bad shape,
you need to really assessright then and there.
It's kind of like you'redriving a car down the freeway and
someone is struggling.
If you don't stop right then,you're going to miss that opportunity
to make sure they're okay,have a conversation.
Because as we know, the longeryou're out there, you get this intoxicated
feeling, and you're so focusedon that.

(34:36):
You've got to do that.
And I think if, if you or I,Andrew, were in that spot, we would
want someone to come up to usand say, hey, I'm watching out for
you.
Let's.
Let's kind of see where youare right now.
And I think even though it'spainful, you've got to do it with
your head, not with yourheart, or maybe a combination of
both to say, hey, I've got todo this.
So it's a great reminderthere, Kurt.

(34:57):
Um, common bike problem number four.
This is you're out on yourbike, you're riding, and you start
feeling some tingling in yourfeet or tingling in your hands or
maybe even some, some, some legs.
You can start getting leg cramps.
People can start gettingdiscomfort in the saddle on their
butt, or they can startgetting some discomfort in their

(35:17):
shoulders and their elbowsjust being in the.
An arrow and pad.
So, so long discomfort in your hands.
And if they're out on the barslong enough, so.
So, Kurt, there's a coupledifferent touch points between us
and the bike.
And if we start experiencingdiscomfort or tingling or numbness
in those touch points.
What do we do that makes itvery, very unpleasant?

(35:38):
And I'm going to go back towhat we've kind of.
The common thread in this isthat try to be very proactive.
So as we look at the tinglingof the hands, you look at the feet,
it's really go back to whenwas the last time you had a bike
fit.
So let's start right there.
And again, if you've got yourreps, and like you said, Andrew,
sometimes it's More convenientto ride inside.
But it's a different feelingwhen you're outside.

(35:59):
So specificity, if you'regoing to do a 70.3 right outside
for three and a half hours ona course that is similar, that way
those signs and symptoms, theymight come up before all of a sudden
on race day it's like, oh mygoodness, I have not encountered
this.
So if we go with the tinglinghands, the thing that you want to
think about as an athlete andagain, myself as a coach, those fingers

(36:20):
are just, yeah, feeling ugly.
Think about your positioningon the bike.
It's like, okay, what iscausing this?
Am I really too far forward inmy saddle?
Am I having too much weight inmy hands?
Maybe I need to pull back alittle bit.
And again, as we know that youcan do one hand at a time.
So I would say the majority oftime pull back a little bit and sit
further back on your saddleversus you're so arrow, you're so

(36:41):
hunched over.
And many times on a flatcourse that's going to happen right
there.
So make sure your system isall good to go.
The other issue is with feet.
In fact, I encountered thiskind of almost for the first time
at, at Texas just, you know,two weeks ago.
Sometimes I would have a hotspot on my right foot about mile
80 I would see that, that itwas manageable.

(37:02):
But at Ironman Texas, myreality is my feet got really hot
at mile 30 or 40.
So I was in a situation Ijust, I couldn't change it.
I had to manage it.
What could I do?
Well, I decided because I amjust a little competitive at every
aid stations, I'm going tothrow water onto my shoes, I'm going
to loosen up my, my straps alittle bit to get more air in there.

(37:24):
But it really impacted myability to maintain power.
Some people actually get offtheir bike, they stretch a little
bit, they get out of theirshoes and they get back in.
And it's just one of those things.
So that's a short termmanagement issue.
Versus if I use myself as theguinea pig of all the years of running.
I need a very wide toe box.

(37:45):
My feet are very flat.
I've come to the realizationnow after all these years that I
have got to get a wide bike shoe.
Because if you think about it,bike shoes are typically, there's
just one width.
The thing that I would havepeople do if your feet are kind of
flat and wide like mine istake out your insoles, take a picture
of your feet on your insoles.
But I found for me on both sides.

(38:06):
I was over by an inch and ahalf, and I'm thinking, wow, problem.
There it is right there.
I mean, it's so transparent.
It's kind of scary.
It's like, why didn't I figurethis out?
I thought it was maybe thecolor of the shoe, the wrong size,
but it was really the width.
But that's more long term.
And then you know that on raceday, if you have that issue on the
bike, it's going to impactyour run.
So tick stock.

(38:27):
And I know for me, I'm goingto go a different direction on that.
As we look at the saddle,there's various things.
I mean, saddle is like a pairof shoes.
Find the one that works for you.
The common mistake that I seewith athletes, and I'm going to raise
my hand because I am a center.
You get a race coming up andyou haven't broken the saddle in,
and it's just like back in the day.

(38:49):
True Grit, John Wayne, RobertRedford were riding horses.
It takes time to break thatsaddle in.
Same thing on a bike.
And I know it can really be alittle bit uncomfortable.
That boy, I'm a little bit tender.
Why?
I don't want to be tender.
I'm getting an abrasion orchafing immediately.
So the thing to do to prevent,actually try to get that saddle way

(39:10):
in advance.
Break it in.
So if you're going to do a70.3 or a full, know that the other
thing is think about your kit.
If you know for sure, you justdon't do well.
That chamois is a little bit thin.
It's probably better to get athicker kit and put that on with
a better chamois and actuallychange when you come into T2.
I think that is really key.

(39:31):
But if you're in thatsituation where you have discomfort.
And I remember again, it wasin Coeur d' Alene.
For some reason, my body andthat saddle were not working together.
And we started getting alittle chafed, and that wasn't fun.
I really.
I actually went by an aidstation and I screamed out, does
anyone have any Vaseline?
It was incredible.
And often they do.
Yeah, some of the aid stationswill have that.

(39:52):
I.
I came back around and theythrew me like a little something
on a stick.
And I grabbed that Vaselineand I slowed down and oh, my goodness.
It's when we're hurting.
The fundamental things of allI want now and pray for is Vaseline.
See, that's the most important thing.
I don't care about anythingBut I need a sport.
Yeah.
What a sport.

(40:13):
Yeah.
But at the same time, what Iuse, I use desitin.
And Andrew, I know with yourlittle one, if you could, I always
tell people if you can putdesitin on a baby's little butt.
For any age group athlete,desitin is your go to.
It has saved me many, many times.
So prepare in advance,especially for a foal and those sensitive
parts of your body.
When you're saddle, a littlebit of lubrication goes a long way.

(40:36):
Yeah.
And definitely, Kurt, this issomething that hopefully in training
an athlete has figured out.
What combination of shammythickness and saddle makes my butt
happy.
Right.
That can take some trial and error.
I, I, for years I very, I, Irefer to them as dainty sit bones.
I just have sit bones that donot like being on a saddle for very
long.
It's just the way they are.

(40:57):
Right.
It's, I just don't have that,that resilience in my sit bones,
I suppose.
But, but I have figured outover the years, okay, this saddle
I, I tend to do well with andI actually, Kurt, tend to do better
with thinner chamois.
And for years I was buying thethicker ones, just assuming, oh,
more padding is better.
And buying really paddedsaddle saddles.

(41:17):
Oh, more padding must be better.
And when I ended up on athinner saddle with a thinner tri
specific chamois, I tend to dobetter with that.
But everybody's gonna bedifferent, right?
So you gotta work out in yourtraining what is going to make your
butt as happy as possible.
But even still, you get out onthe race course, it's a long day,
your butt's out there a long time.
And for me, Kurt, whether it'sjust feeling pressure on those dainty

(41:40):
sit bones or feeling tinglingin hands, fingers, feet, you have
to change your position alittle bit.
Right.
You have to get those bodyparts moving.
I'm wearing my Ironman Wacoshirt today.
While we're recording doingIronman Waco, I'm at like mile 70
or 80 and all of a sudden myleft foot, I'd never had this happen
before.
My left foot specifically,like my toes kept falling asleep.

(42:02):
And so every like mile or two,I was literally just like, like a
little like bird doing thiswith my toes, just getting those
toes moving.
And it would, it would getblood circulating down there and
they would be fine for acouple miles and have to do it again.
And so whatever body part isgiving you issue, once you're out
there, even if it's A piece ofgear or something you don't normally
struggle with.
Get that body part moving.

(42:23):
Get that body part.
Let it change positions just alittle bit to just, you know, if
your calf's starting to tweakor cramp up a little bit, get that
leg stretched out for just asecond, kind of reset your body,
and then keep going, andhopefully it'll run its course.
Yeah.
Real quick, Andrew, you saidthe C word, and I just want to spend

(42:43):
a minute on that.
At any time, when you're onthe bike and you notice a hamstring
cramp, calf cramp, in yourmind, ask yourself, where am I on
my electrolytes?
I tend to always try to do mybest to carry extra electrolytes.
It's better to be proactive onthat, too, versus, well, it's kind
of in my head.
It's going to go away.
No, no, no.

(43:04):
Because the longer you're outthere in the elements with mother
nature, that's going to comeback and bite you real hard.
I don't want to brag, Kurt,but I'm so good at drinking electrolytes
and taking in electrolytes, sogood at this that I took in too many
at Ironman Waco.
So anyway, common bike problemnumber five.
While we're talking aboutnutrition, Kurt is losing your nutrition.

(43:26):
Or maybe you're rolling up toan aid station on the bike.
This is a common one.
It can be crowded.
You're on the move, volunteersare trying to hand your stuff, and
maybe you just don't grab whatyou're trying to grab.
And then all of a sudden,you've exited the aid station.
You didn't get the aid thatyou were counting on getting.
So if we're out on the bike,it's race day.
We either drop a bottle ormisplace a gel.

(43:49):
Fishing a gel out of ourpocket, we drop it.
If we find ourselves withoutthe aid, we're counting on hydration
or nutrition.
What do we do?
This one is really, really tough.
They're all tough, but thisone in particular, because I think
when you look at any racewhere you feel like we ask the question,
let's talk about success.
How would you define that?
And I think I always come backto two big overarching themes.

(44:12):
Your pacing and your nutrition.
Do always do your best to makesure that as you're planning your
nutrition, that you've gotplan A, you've got plan B and plan
C.
So I'll kind of talk throughour listeners, you know, a couple
different scenarios, let's sayPlan A, you're good to go.
You've got all your nutritionkind of on your bike.
You've got it in your downtube and your bottle, you've got

(44:32):
it maybe on your.
Your handlebars.
You're going to put things inyour kit.
So you're good to go there.
And that should not be a problem.
However, it happens all thetime with pros, age groupers all
over the board.
All of a sudden you hit thisbump and boom, that bottle flies
off.
And all of your.
Literally, your refrigeratorwas right there and it just went

(44:54):
out the window.
So what do you need to do?
Okay, well, that is going outthe window.
I know that I'm going to need200 calories per hour.
I know I'm going to use some salt.
So you've got to kind of makethose adjustments to say, okay, those
aid stations now aredefinitely aid stations.
And you've got to go a lotslower to say, I need to retool,
try to use again your head andbe very intuitive, like, what am

(45:17):
I going to need?
And I know that if you pulledup to an aid station, even if you
needed to get off your bike tomake sure that you can get gels,
you know, get anything youneed, it's not perfect, but you've
got to adapt.
It's like, I ordered steak andthere's no steak, but I'm going to
have something else on themenu that's going to be just fine.
So that would be the firstthing that I would really recommend
to people that you need to do.

(45:39):
The other thing, too is Ifound through the years is you kind
of underestimate what you'regoing to need and this could be a
reality.
And Andrew, again, you were atthat race with John Mayfield.
It was Coeur d' Alene, and Ithink that day was hitting like 102.
Very hot, very hot.
And I think I was.
I was having a conversation atthe start, and the conversation,
well, it doesn't seem too hotright now.

(46:01):
And I'm like, you'reabsolutely correct because it's 5
o' clock in the morning.
We'll come back this 11.
So I.
I had planned out my nutritionto the point where I was using, you
know, the electrolytes, I wasusing my nutrition.
I thought I was good to go.
When I started that secondlap, I looked at my bike computer
like, oh, my gosh, what's happening?
My heart rate was actuallymatching my power.

(46:24):
So instead of having a heartrate of 120 and my power's at 170
in watts.
It was like 120, 125.
And I'm digging into my littleelectrolyte kit, and guess what?
There's no more.
So here I am, so embarrassed.
It's like, can you put a sackon my head?
Because, like, I'm a novice now.
I'm supposed to be a coach.
I'm supposed to be someonethat is knowledgeable.

(46:45):
I'm on a podcast and I'm on apodcast, but I'm now asking people,
how's your day going?
They're going great.
And I said, cool.
Oh, you're cramping.
Excellent.
You know what I'm thinking?
Do you have any extra salt?
So sometimes when you're outthere, you need to do that just like
we would do that to others ifyou can give someone else.
So I literally had to pivot,hoping and praying I could find another

(47:08):
person.
So I was leaning on athletes,which is so embarrassing.
But I'm just, We're family, sowe can talk openly.
That if it wasn't for their support.
And I knew because it keptgetting hotter and hotter.
I'm like, nothing good's goingto happen out here.
I've got to get off this bikecourse because now I get to run the
marathon when it's like 102 degrees.
What a sport.

(47:28):
What a sport, What a sport.
So I know that it's justsomething that you learn from your
mistakes, and I would telleveryone is to make sure you're bringing
more than enough.
Another thing, too.
Two other things that I knowthat can and will happen.
It's unfortunate that I'velearned that don't put everything
on your bike the day before.
In other words, when you'reputting your nutrition on your bike,

(47:50):
do it on the morning of.
Because I've had athletes tellme they made that mistake.
They had everything on thebike the day before.
They didn't check it beforethey got on the bike.
And Andrew, right to yourpoint there, the timer goes off.
They open that little botabag, and guess what?
Everything is gone.
And then they lose it.
It's like, oh, wait a minute,all my nutrition's gone.

(48:11):
Now I've got to go ahead and pivot.
So that's something that I'velearned that is really, really key.
The other thing, too, ispersonal needs.
Make sure you have extra stuff.
Because I know that kind of atthe halfway point on the.
That's another thing.
So if you can say, okay, Ilost my nutrition, but it's my personal
needs bag, I can get more andI've learned sometimes in the excitement,

(48:32):
they'll just throw the bag.
I had this at Texas.
I didn't quite get all my nutrition.
I got some of it, so I had to adapt.
But stop there, reload.
Because now you're like, oh,my gosh, I got another parachute
on my back.
So utilize all those resourcesout on the bike.
I would say probably for everysingle age grouper, it is worth stopping.
Getting that bottle, gettingthat gel, getting that electrolyte
tablet, making sure,particularly for middle distance

(48:55):
and full distance, if you'redoing a sprint or Olympic, okay,
keep on rolling.
You didn't get that water.
So what?
But the longer you're going,the more vital those things are.
So make sure you're gettingwhat you need.
And also, Kurt, I think youwould agree with this as well.
Look at the course map.
Usually the course map foryour race, whether it's an Ironman
event or a local event, theywill usually kind of point out, here's

(49:18):
where the aid stations are.
You can kind of see how farapart they are.
Sometimes there's a lot ofthem, sometimes there's a few of
them.
But if there are only a few ofthem, add some bottle cages to your
bike.
Add some nutrition.
Take more than you think youmight need.
If it's a little sparser on that.
To that point, Andrew, Itotally agree.
I think that if you miss anaid station, it's better to stop

(49:42):
again, swallow your pride,circle back around and do what you
need to do.
Because if you're on theaverage 30 to 40 minutes, you've
got to think about roadsurface, you've got to think about
temperature, you've got tothink wind.
Your heart rate is going todefinitely elevate if you're dehydrated
or your caloric needs are at a deficit.
So it's better to slow things down.
It's only two or threeminutes, but you're much better off

(50:03):
as the race progresses becausewe need to run after the bike.
Common bike problem number sixis getting stuck in a crowded section
of athletes.
When this happens, we need toavoid drafting.
So we have to stay, you know,keep a distance between the bike
in front of us.
But we also don't want to getslowed down by people.
Some people, whether it'sintentionally or not, you try to

(50:24):
pass them and all of a suddenthey speed up.
And now you're.
You're getting caught in adrag race trying to pass them, trying
to burn a match just to getaround somebody.
Navigating the field can be awhole thing, and it can become a
problem when we're out there.
So, Coach Kurt, if we're oncourse and the triathletes around
us are slowing us down, they're.
They're hogging up the road,they're clogging up the road, they're
impeding our progress.

(50:45):
What do we do?
Yeah, this is a tough one, andI've seen this change over the years.
I'll play it really, really safe.
You know, when we have thosecrowded conditions with athletes
and you kind of get in asituation where you're trying to
avoid drafting, I would saythe number one thing is just play
it cool.
In other words, don't burnyour matches.

(51:06):
Don't become, you know, asituation where you're just becoming
very, very vocal.
It's better just to play itcool, maintain your integrity and
be patient and be objective.
And it sounds real easy intheory, because things can happen
out on a race course that yousee a group of people going by that
are in a pack and, you know,everyone knows what they're doing,
but it's like, well, I needto, again, be very objective here.

(51:31):
The thing I've learned whenthat happens is I'm going to start
with just safety.
I've seen this through theyears, and it's no hit on triathletes,
but generally speaking thatwe're not riding the Tour de France.
We're not riding every singleday in large groups in very close
proximity.
We are on tri bikes.
We've got a lot of stuff on,and sometimes just that etiquette

(51:51):
probably is not going to bethe best.
Plus, we haven't ridden in agroup before, and it's a lot different
than if you look at, say, aroad race.
So I've learned that it'sbetter to do your best to give space
on the front, on the sides, inthe back, and always kind of have
your head up and be on guard,because it's very easy that if your
back wheel gets hit, you'regoing to go down.

(52:12):
And that's a terrible sound.
I've heard it so many timeswhen someone just says, oh, poop,
and they go over thehandlebars and someone's down and
someone's down.
You can see it on tv and it'slike, wow, that looks really.
But when you're actually thereand you hear it, it's even worse.
Know, too, that when you're inthat situation that if you're trying
to get away from a group, youmight be at 175 watts, you're going

(52:34):
to burn up to 250 to pullahead, chances are they're going
to catch back up with you.
Yeah.
So again, your birdie matches.
The best thing is just give alittle bit of space, pull back a
little bit.
Know too that when you're inthe group, I mean, again, just to
be very objective, the bigbenefit is your heart rate comes
down, your wattage comes down,you're going to run a lot better.
But do your best just tomanage it.

(52:55):
It's going to happen in anyrace where you're on a flat or it
gets really, really impacted.
But, you know, when you get tothat finish line, you can check yourself
to say, I did my best to avoiddrafting and, or I got through those
crowded conditions.
And if people did that,honestly, I've learned I just need
to let it go.
They have to live with that.
And if they can look in themirror to say, it was a time trial,

(53:17):
I did my best, it's betterjust to let the chips fall.
Really great points there, Kurt.
I always try to remind myself,particularly in middle distance and
full distance triathlon, I tryto remind myself that, okay, I might
not be thrilled with what thepack conditions are at this present
moment, but it's going to change.
And within a mile or two,right, the bikes around you, the

(53:38):
people around you are almostalways going to totally change, whether
it's you going around somepeople or the crowd thinning out.
So usually when you kind ofget stuck and bogged down, it's very
temporary.
So just be patient, play thelong game.
Like Kurt said, the timeyou're going to lose is going to
be negligible compared tokeeping your cool, keeping your heart
rate down.
Yeah.

(53:58):
And the other, the otherscenario, and it's again, so vivid
in my mind, is when anyathlete is approaching an aid station,
if you're behind somebody andthey literally almost come to a stop,
you're asking yourself, whyare you stopping?
So you want to, as youapproach an aid station, have your
head up.
I always keep one hand on abreak just in case you have to kind

(54:19):
of be a little defensive,meaning that you're, you're defending
yourself and you're doing thatdefensive driving because they don't
know what's behind them andit's you.
So give yourself a little bitof grace versus, hey, I'll just kind
of steamroll through this aidstation and custom swear to everyone,
that's not good karma, that'snot good energy.
So just be prepared at aidstations, especially if you see people

(54:41):
starting to stop.
Coach Kirk.
The last and final common bike problem.
Common bike problem numberseven we're going to talk about today
is you're out on the bike onrace day on the course, and you gotta.
You just gotta go to the bathroom.
This is the real deal, Kurt.
It's the real deal.
It's a big problem.
What do we do?
We're on course on our bike,and, man, it hits us.

(55:02):
We got to go.
You mean, Andrew, this issomething that you've encountered
before?
I've encountered this, yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Well, I'm going to be verypolitically correct, but I'm going
to get down to the real nitty gritty.
Yeah.
There's a couple of scenarioswhere you're in the bike.

(55:22):
When a person has that urge toliterally pee, then your body is
telling you your bladder isprobably really full.
And when you're sitting onthose little sensitive bones in that
part of your body, it's evenmore uncomfortable.
So if you can master the craftand you feel okay with it.
I don't do this in training,but I mastered it on race day.

(55:44):
Is that okay?
You have to relieve yourself.
What I found that works very good.
It's tough if the course isperfectly flat, but even if you get
a few little rollers withbridges, you would get in your big
chain ring for sure.
Make sure that you can come upout of your saddle, and as you're
lowering your cadence andyou're up off the saddle, you're

(56:05):
actually going up the hill andliterally just taking ap.
Now, it takes a little bit ofpractice, and timing is everything,
but I think I've learned thatit's just much more comfortable than
doing that same thing on the downhill.
If you can plan things thatyou're coasting, lift yourself up
off the saddle, keep your.
Your feet position at nine andthree, and it's actually not all

(56:29):
that bad.
The one challenge is this.
If you don't have some type ofwater or something soon, you could
have a lot of irritation thatI go back kind of that desitin thing.
So I think that is a littlebit easier.
Some people just cannot do that.
And I totally get that.
The only thing that you can doliterally is you have to get to a

(56:51):
porta potty, knowing that'syour best option.
I would tell anyone, honestly,I'm not saying peeing on the bike
is the best thing to do, butit's different than getting off your
bike and going to the bathroom there.
That would cause some majorissues with race officials, and it
might lead to A disqualification.
So that's the easier part ofthis dilemma.

(57:11):
But let's say you over fibered.
Let's say for whatever reasonyour stomach is feeling a little
queasy and then you get a callfor number two, not number one.
This is number two.
That can be fatal.
I've had a couple situationswhere I've been able to find a porta
Potty, but that is somethingthat is got to be taken care of sooner

(57:34):
or later.
You can't just say, hey, I'llsuck it up and I'll wait till I get
off the bike.
You know what, that's notprobably going to happen.
I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
So if that situation comes up,just pray that you can have enough
muscle control to get to thatporta potty.
I would back off on your intensity.
Stay focused on again.
That's the most important thing.

(57:56):
I know what I need to do.
I've got to take care of my business.
So that is just something thatis kind of your worst nightmare.
But I know going into racesthrough the years, I've really tried
to eliminate that by shiftingmy diet and just making sure it's
on point.
So I have a small amount ofsolitude the day before, knowing
that a small amount of solidfood should be out of my body before

(58:18):
as compared to, well, we'llstop by the favorite Italian restaurant
and we're just going to eatpizza and eat pasta till we puke.
Not a good choice the night before.
Great set everyone.
Let's cool down.
All right, Coach Kurt, ontothe cool down of today's show and

(58:38):
we have a question from the audience.
We are overhauling ourcooldowns every show of the try.podcast
on the cooldown.
For the near to mid future wewill be featuring one question from
an audience member of the TryDot podcast.
And today's question comesfrom Eric.
He says, quite often the powerI can hold outdoors on my bike is

(59:00):
less than what I can holdriding indoors on the trainer.
Why is this the case and canthis be overcome?
And when I saw Eric'squestion, Kurt, this is my experience.
Spot on.
I struggle with this as well.
Even as much as I know theplatform and as much as I know how
tried out works and how ridingindoors, work versus outdoors and
having a podcast and talkingto coaches like yourself, this can

(59:23):
be tough to do.
It's kind of like in swimming, right?
Where a lot of swimmers willrefine their technique in the pool
and they get faster in thepool and they hit open water and
their swim pace is the same ithas been in open water.
It's.
It's very much the same thing.
So, Coach Kurt, for ourcyclists who are seeing improvement
on the bike indoors, whetherthere's lifting, full gassing, ruving,

(59:43):
and they get outdoors and man, those.
Those watts just aren't there.
Can we overcome this?
Why.
Why is this.
Why is this happening to us?
Yeah, there's maybe.
And this.
This does come up often.
And I know as I work with myathletes, we always have this conversation.
I would say the first thingthat I would pose to Eric is, is
look at your setup on yourtrainer as compared to outside.

(01:00:04):
In other words, are you usingthe same bike or using two different
bikes?
Because maybe your power meterindoors is set differently on that
trainer as compared to whatyou're going to do outside.
If you go to inside, it's avery controlled environment.
You're looking at yourcomputer, you're holding 200 watts.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
When you get outside, you haveso many elements that you're dealing

(01:00:27):
with from wind, road, you'returning, it's definitely going to
fluctuate a little bit more.
And I think, like Eric said,it is really hard to maintain that
power.
It seems to bounce around muchmore when you're outside, and that
leads to frustration.
It's like, well, how can it be120 and then 150, then 170, then
150?
It feels like my RP is very,very consistent.

(01:00:48):
I wouldn't.
I wouldn't overly focus in onthat, but probably what I would do
for any rider is I'm going todefinitely look at my normalized
power.
So you can see your average power.
When you're on there, it seemsless, but spot check that normalized
power.
That's probably a betterindicator if you're going to ride
longer than an hour to say,okay, I know how much I'm putting
out, and then start to logthat if you see that's very, very

(01:01:11):
consistent.
It is what it is.
But I know every time we rideoutside, usually the weather is a
little bit different.
So it's hard to kind of matchup from, you know, over six weeks.
I did five or six differentrides, and every ride is a little
bit different outside ascompared to inside.
You're on the trainer, it'svery, very controlled.
So no need to worry about that.
But make sure your cadence issmooth, that you're light on your

(01:01:32):
pedals, that you're spinning.
You find that sweet spot.
Yeah.
Something else Eric includedin his comment, Kurt, that that as
I'm Hearing your response,other TR AT athletes in particular
might be wondering this.
If our bike assessments aredone indoors where we do have some
more watts because of thereasons you're saying.
And then, you know, for ourrace X on race day, we're, we're
basing our pacing, we'rebasing everything we're doing on

(01:01:55):
that indoor wattage.
Should we, should we be doingsome assessments outdoors to kind
of find out what our real 20,20 minute power is outside or how
do we reconcile the differencebetween those two watts to make sure
that we're pacing ourselvescorrectly on race day?
Yeah.
And I think the beauty ofTrident is we look at our race X
and look at our trainingplatform that really trying to simulate

(01:02:18):
a race rehearsal outside on acourse similar to what you're going
to ride on, I think that'sreally key.
And some people, because ofthe geography and the weather, they
have to do those indoor.
But riding outside is going tobe probably your best thing that
you can do.
So at least you can match upand know that I'm 5 watts off, I'm
10 watts off.
But when in doubt on race day,I would tell anyone the thing that

(01:02:40):
we have learned.
And a lot of people it's kindof you could versus you should.
Well, I could go faster on the bike.
I can push more power.
That is really awesome.
And then let's talk about your run.
So five minutes faster on thebike and it's going to cost you,
we have learned is that beconservative on your bike, so you're
going to run a lot better.

(01:03:00):
Thanks for joining us.
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