Troubleshooting 7 Common Race-Day Swim Problems

Even though the swim is the shortest part of a triathlon, plenty can go wrong as you make your way through the water. Coach Joanna Nami brings her coaching and racing experience to the podcast to help us troubleshoot the seven most common issues athletes may face during the swim portion of the race. From goggle and wetsuit issues to anxiety and the effects of water temperature, we cover it all! This episode will help ease those race-day swim fears and help you have a confident swim split!

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This is the Tridot podcast.
Tri Dot uses your trainingdata and genetic profile combined
with predictive analytics andartificial intelligence to optimize
your training, giving youbetter results in less time with
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 and andlet's improve together.
Together.
Hey everyone.
Welcome to the Tri Dot podcast.
Today on this show, we aretalking about how to troubleshoot

(00:46):
the seven most common race dayswim problems.
We're not going to hit everypossible thing that could go wrong
when you're out there in thewater, but we think we have a list
with the most common things anathlete might face when they're swimming
on race day.
And here to help us do thattroubleshooting is coach Joanna Nami.

(01:07):
I love talking about swimmingwith Coach Joe.
She's been coachingtriathletes for over a decade and
is the head coach of Team JoJo.
She has over 20 Ironmanfinishes herself, including multiple
trips to the Ironman WorldChampionships and as recently as
last weekend, just finishedIronman Texas.
Joe, how did that race go for you?

(01:27):
It went pretty well, I would say.
I did get Covid the weekbefore racing, of course.
Of course moms and dad knowwhat kids bring home and so I was
like par for the course, very,very warm day in Texas, but was pretty
pleased to come back, youknow, with that effort and it's a

(01:52):
good start for, for what's to come.
Yeah.
Great to see you and so manyother tri dotters cross the finish
line on that day and well, I'mAndrew, the average triathlete.
I did not race Ironman Texaslast weekend, but I'm excited to
get our show going today.
We're going to start like wealways do with our warmup questions.
Settle in to our main setconversation where Coach Joe will
help us troubleshoot somecommon swim race course problems

(02:14):
and then we'll close thingsdown with the Cooldown.
We're going to change our cooldown.
We're doing a new thing on the Cooldown.
Moving forward.
We're going to ask oneaudience member question every single
show on the Cooldown.
Moving forward.
So excited to see what youhave to ask Coach Joe when we get
to that portion of the show.
Lots of good stuff.
Let's get to it.

(02:35):
Time to warm up.
Let's get moving.
All right, Coach Joe, into ourwarm up question here.
And for our warm up, whilewe're talking about things that can
go wrong on the swim course, Iwant to Know Coach Joe, what is the
biggest race day problem youpersonally have encountered during

(02:57):
the swim portion of a race?
This was a tough one for mebecause I, everything that we're
going to talk about today I've experienced.
I think when you've done thislong enough.
Good.
Yeah.
I'm going on like 20 years ofendurance racing.
I think once you've done, youknow, enough Ironman half Ironman
endurance racing, you're goingto experience a number of these things.

(03:19):
And I was trying to figure outprobably what was the, the worst
thing that happened.
And I've had, I mean when Italk about these things, people think
you're crazy.
I mean I've had as of Texason, on Saturday, most recently I
had the earring ripped out ofmy ear.
That was during the swim.
Fun, fun, fun times.

(03:40):
They weren't expensive.
I think they were from Target,so that's okay.
But did you like feel that inthe moment, like you felt that happening
or you just noticed later itwas gone?
No, afterwards, like racephotos, I was like, whoa, where's
my earring?
Some bleeding there, some earring.
You know, I will say, I thinkshocking wise it's probably like

(04:01):
jellyfish stings like Cozumel, Maryland.
Those are ones that, I thinkthe last time I did Cozumel, the
moment I hit the water I gotstung on the lip.
My injection.
Yeah, I mean like, come on,this is going to be a great day.
Just right at you, get you onthe face.
So that was, that was pretty shocking.

(04:21):
But it's so funny because youget through the whole day and then
you're like, then you rememberyou got stung on the face.
Like, you know, in the momentyou just, you just muddle through
and you.
Yeah, but I, I will say fishthings are, are tricky.
You know, getting cold cockedin the face, that, that happens routinely.
But we'll talk more about thatas we go through and how we deal

(04:41):
with those things.
Yeah, we absolutely will.
And, and this answer for me,Joe, is there's a few times I've
had my, my goggles leak alittle bit or fog a little bit and
I had to just, you know, clearthem real quick and then keep swimming.
I really haven't had, asidefrom just not being fit.
And I say that to say myanswer here is Clash Daytona.

(05:03):
A few years ago I had notreally actively been training.
I was running but I wasn'ttriathlon training and we went to
Clash Daytona and I did therun portion of a relay and I did
the sprint and I'm thinking,okay, I haven't really been in a
pool, but it's just a sprintswim, no big deal.
This will be easy peasy.
I put my wetsuit on, I got outthere and.

(05:24):
And the sprint at ClashDaytona, it's not like some of the
Texas, like indoor pool eventswhere it's like 300 meters and you're
done.
It was a proper thousand meter swim.
Right.
Which, which is no joke.
That's no, you know, youshould train for that.
Well, I didn't.
And so I get out there andeven though I've done, you know,
20, 30, 40 triathlons in mytime, all the way up to Ironman,
yeah, I didn't have a great swim.

(05:45):
And I got out there and Istarted feeling a little anxious.
I started feeling a littleclaustrophobic in my wetsuit.
I started really notpanicking, but getting kind of out
of breath because I was soanxious and I never had those kind
of problems on the swim before.
And so just goes to show you,and we'll talk about this a little
later in the show.
You know, you can be aveteran, you can have gone through

(06:05):
the motions several times andhave something like swim anxiety,
swim mild panic attack of sorts.
And I had to actually sit upand kind of doggy style a couple
times during that swimming toget my breath under control, to get
my nerves under control.
And just because I kind ofwent in a little overconfident.
Oh, I know how to do this.
It'll be fine that I haven'tswam at all in training.

(06:27):
It was not fine that I hadn'tswam at all in training.
I barely got through it.
And that is the biggest raceday problem I've had, was just really
being a little out of sortsout in the water at Clash Daytona.
Yeah.
And that was race number 30 or40 for me in my triathlon journey.
So it can happen to anybody.
We're going to throw thisquestion out to our audience like
we always do.

(06:48):
I will post it to the I AmTrident Facebook group.
We'll post this to the TridentCommunity hub.
And this will go out onInstagram as a fun question just
to kind of see.
What are your stories fromswim courses?
What's the biggest race dayproblem you've ever had while in
the water?
Can't wait to see what you,our listeners, have to say.
On to the main set.
Going in 3, 2, 1.

(07:14):
On to our main set.
We'll going to fly through ourseven most common race day swim problems
and coach Joe is going to helpus troubleshoot what to do.
If we're in the water and weencounter one of these seven problems,
and Joe, common swim problemnumber one is something going wrong
with your goggles.

(07:35):
This is usually your gogglesfogging up.
This can be your gogglesgetting knocked off.
And Joe, we can also kind ofgroup swim cap problems into this
one as well.
Sometimes a swim cap willactually tear when you're putting
it on a race morning.
That's never good.
You know, sometimes your swimcap and your goggles can get knocked
around while you're swimming.
So, Coach show, if we haveproblems with our goggles or with

(07:58):
our swim cap, you know, justour head covering setup, what should
we do when we're out in thewater and this happens?
Well, one thing I want topreface before we get into all of
these, what we talk aboutthese go wrongs, there's, there's
a way I approach this with myathletes when it comes to swim, bag,
run, all triathlon.
As far as we're not going toframe it as what's going to go wrong,

(08:19):
we're going to talk about thewhat ifs.
I love that.
And yeah, and so the way Iprep an athlete for a half or a full
ironman is to have them comeup with their scariest thoughts about,
like top 10 what ifs duringthe race, when we talk those out
and have a plan of action anda practice plan of action as to what

(08:41):
we're going to do if we have aflat, if we have mechanical on the
bike, if we have a panicattack in the water, you know, if
we cramp on the run, all ofthese things are ifs.
What ifs may not happen, couldhappen, but they become a lot less
scary when we talk about andpractice what we're going to do in
each of those situations.

(09:02):
So for this podcast, we'regoing to frame these as what ifs.
What ifs this happens in the water.
What if my goggles fog up?
And I think when you frame it,that and you prepare for it and talk
it out, it makes handling erased.
Because the truth is thesedays are very, very long.
Whether it's a half or a full,nothing goes perfectly.

(09:24):
And so when you've talked alot about these things that you're
worried about, they become alot less scary and you know what
to do and you learn to handlethem when they occur and they don't
derail you for the rest of the day.
This is kind of episode one ina series and we're going to have
the same conversation.
For the bike, what are themost common Things that go wrong
on the bike.
We're going to have the sameconversation about the run, same

(09:46):
conversation about race day nutrition.
And so Joe, I love youestablishing this as the mindset
heading into all these conversations.
So just wanted to stop andjust, and just thanks for that.
A little trick that I've usedfor myself and it helps me mentally
during these races and all ofthese that I've done these years.
But I even speak out loud whensomething happens.

(10:07):
I tend to giggle because I'vestill said it for like 20 years.
Say I, you know, I like onSaturday got hit in the face during
the swim.
You get discombobulated.
I'll say to myself, reset, reset.
And I, and I, and it's, Ilaugh because I still do it or like
I almost get clipped on thebike and my, my nerves get rattled

(10:28):
and I say reset, breathe,reset, breathe.
And when I do it kind oftriggers my mind to say get back
to it girl.
You know, don't, you know,don't let this derail you.
So like kind of talk, it's a,kind of a self talk the whole time.
But resetting, you're going toreset 100 times during the day from
little things that are happening.
So that's just a little toolto use to mentally kind of say it

(10:51):
to yourself, reset, breathe.
And then let's get back to it.
But we were talking aboutgoggles themselves.
Oh, there's so many issueswith goggles.
Some of the big ones are about fogging.
This is something that's so controllable.
That's what's easy.
Everybody has a preference asto what you apply to your inside
of your goggles.

(11:12):
There are a lot of anti fog products.
Some people like baby shampoo,some people like to spit in their
goggles if you're going to goreal cheap.
But you know, I'm a fan of foggies.
They're wipes that you wipeout the, the inside of your goggles.
They're multi purpose sothey're amazing on aero helmet shield
as well as sunglasses.

(11:34):
So if you give a quick wipe toall of those things before putting
them in your bags or settingup your transition, you will have
no problem with fogging of the goggles.
So Andrew, I don't know ifyou've tried those things but it
really is helpful to preventthat because there's nothing like
getting out and not being ableto sight or see anything with fogging.

(11:58):
And in warmer climates we usedto that here in Texas everything
fogs up real quick with 100% humidity.
Yeah, so that is an issue with goggles.
Another one is, you know, thembreaking them, getting lost.
I mean, that sounds like anightmare, right?
And this, this goes back to astory one of longtime athlete that

(12:21):
I've coached, Jeanette Anderson.
She's done quite a fewIronmans under my coaching, but she
is hilarious.
One of my best friends, butshe's out at the lake and, you know,
I'm trying to get her.
I was like, today you're goingto swim, you know, 4200.
We're gonna, you know, we'regonna swim this consistently as a
confidence booster and prepfor Ironman.
She gets back to the dock,she's pooped, tired.

(12:42):
She swam the 4200 and I, youknow, take the goggles from her and
I'm like going back in and shelooked at me with like, go do another
lap.
And I said, no goggles.
Going to do one lap withoutthose goggles.
And I mean, and she did it.
And it, when she came out,she, she was very appreciative, but
she, she was mad.
But, you know, she said, Isaid, you never know what's going

(13:04):
to happen.
And that would probably.
One of the worst things thathappen at a swim is that, you know,
you do lose your goggles.
I mean, you're losing, you'relosing your sight at that point.
But is it, is it a, is it a.
Is it going to kill your race?
Absolutely not.
You practiced this.
You did it.
And you can, you can.
If you've got a breaststroke,if you've got a backstroke, you're
going through that swim.

(13:25):
And so it's a good idea.
It's really hard, but set themon the pool deck.
Set them on the pool deck.
Do, do a hundred, do 200.
Just a little bit of practiceto know that you can do it if something
happens to those goggles.
Yeah, no, I absolutely lovethat, Joe and I kind of.
My, my cheat code here, Joe,is I've actually never used the Foggies
myself and I usually don'thave issues on race day.

(13:46):
And largely that's because Ijust, I just go in the race day with
new.
A new set of goggles, right?
And particularly for my Araces, right?
If I'm doing a half Ironman oran Ironman.
Joe, you and I actually swimin the same pair of race goggles.
We know what they are.
We love them.
They fit our face well.
And so I'm not tryingsomething new on race day.

(14:06):
It's a new pair of my favorite goggle.
And when they are new, theyhave the manufacturer anti fog stuff
on there, it's untouched, noone's done anything with it.
And I've never had a race dayproblem with new goggles.
If I have my goggles fog up,it's because I'm doing a local sprint
or Olympic and I don't springfor a new set of goggles.
I use the ones I've beentraining in where I could prevent

(14:29):
it ahead of time by usingfoggies that I've just never used.
So I should try that next timeI go.
Short course for sure.
Yeah.
And the other two things Ithink about, as far as goggles go,
you have to do what makes youmost comfortable in a swim.
If the security of having asecond pair of tucked into your wetsuit
or swim skin.
If that helps you, then that's fine.

(14:51):
You know, a lot of my athletesask me, you know, do I bring it on
a half?
I'm usually like, you know,it's up to you.
I've never done that.
And if a full, if it makes youmore comfortable, then so be it.
You know, tuck an extra pair in.
I think the most common thingthat happens with goggles is due
to the, the contact weexperience in these, these massive
swims is to get knocked in the face.

(15:13):
And to have that happened tome Saturday, late into the swim and
it can, it can be rattling,but again, it's one of those resettlements
where you just, you've got tosit up, you've got to make sure you
clear that goggle of waterbecause now you've got water in the
eye, all of it, shake it out,put it back on and try to get back
to flat body position as fastas you can.

(15:35):
If you've sustained an injury,if you've, if, if you've really been
cold cocked, which hashappened to me before, there is no
shame and there's no penaltyfor getting to a kayak.
Yeah, good point.
That's happened to a number ofmy athletes.
And it's perfectly fine tograb hold of a buoy rope or the kayak
and get yourself secure sothat you can reset the goggles and
then, and then proceed withthe swim.

(15:56):
Yeah, I think every raceforward I've ever done, it obviously
depends on the race producerwhat the rules are, but I don't think
I've ever done a race wherethis was not the case.
The rule is generally you cangrab onto, support, kayak support,
watercraft support, you know,of course, buoys, you cannot advance
yourself on those items, butyou can grab on, sit there, reset

(16:18):
do what you need to do.
And Joe, you already kind ofare getting into common swim problem
number two.
So I'll go ahead and identifywhat that is.
And that is experiencing bigtime contact with another swimmer.
And sometimes, like you justsaid, that can affect your goggle
setup because it's direct.
A direct strike to the face.
But this can be gettingkicked, getting punched, getting

(16:39):
slapped, getting dunked, swamover, sideswiped, T boned.
It's all on the table out there.
People get swam over, peoplejust get walloped in the side and
lose their breath.
If we take some big timecontact, what do we do?
How do we handle it?
I think the first thing isalways self check.

(16:59):
You have to evaluate.
You've got to keep yourbearings and say, am I injured?
Am I pain or am I just stunned?
Most of the time we're juststunned, we're not injured.
And in those situations,that's a reset moment.
But I tend to focus on.
I need to find space.

(17:19):
I need to find space for myself.
So that's okay to sit up for a moment.
If you are in the mix likethousands of swimmers, there's just
no room to swim.
Maybe that means scooting tothe left or right, get to the side,
find some space for yourself.
You don't want to battle.
You know, I tend to start theswim up front.
You know, there is a lot, lotof big guys that, you know, think

(17:42):
they're going to win the ironman that day.
I mean, they are.
They're all set to, you know,beat Christian Blumenfeld on, you
know, the moment moment thegun blows.
They're, they're out to, todominate that swim.
And it's, you know, I, I tend,it tends to fuel me when I get Cole
cock.
And I tend to have choicewords for some.
Give a retaliate Joe, justkind of give him an elbow or let

(18:05):
him know, hey, someone's over here.
Yeah, I've said thingsunderwater thinking, can they hear
me?
Can they hear my words?
But it's.
I have to, I have to tend toreign myself in and think, okay,
what am I doing in this moment?
I'm not injured.
I'm going to scoot to the sideof this big guy because I don't want
to battle him anymore.
He's, you know, he's kicked me.
He's, you know, all of the things.

(18:27):
But if in the instance thatyou do feel like you've suffered
an injury.
I had an instance, I think itwas in Cozumel one year where I contemplated
whether I had a Broken nose,you know, I mean, there, there, there
are situations where, andsometimes it takes a few minutes
where slow your stroke down,focus on swim form.
Breathe every stroke to yournatural side.

(18:49):
Make sure you're securing goodinhale and exhale, because sometimes
that will alleviate pain andkind of bring you back to a center
where you're like, I'm okay,I'm okay.
It's kind of settling yourself down.
You know, in those momentsyour adrenaline spikes, your heart
rate spikes.
You don't want to just gun itbecause that's, that's not good for

(19:10):
you as far as the full swim orthe full day.
So kind of reining yourselfback and kind of checking on yourself,
seeing if you're, you're okayto continue.
If you are not okay tocontinue, you're going to know pretty
quickly.
And that's when you need to besmart about safety and your own health
and flagging down help orgetting to a kayak, you know, contact

(19:33):
is just, that's the name ofthe game.
It is a lot better than itused to be when we had mass starts.
So, you know, I, I, Iencourage guys out there, girls out
there, to be respectful ofother swimmers around them.
Um, we're not going to win itin that first 500 yards of the Ironman.
So, you know, having somecourtesy and care for those around

(19:54):
you is important.
I have to remind myself like,like it's not personal.
They just didn't see me.
They have no idea I'm rightthere in the water.
And so sometimes I'll justgive like a slight little shove,
right, Just to, just to createa little space for myself, to let
them, kind of let them know,hey, somebody is right here.
And I've been on the otherside that, right?
You're swimming along, youthink you're all alone, and all of

(20:14):
a sudden you feel your arm hit somebody.
Oh.
Oh, shoot.
So sorry.
I didn't know you were there.
You know, look kind of look over.
And so it's just, we're alltrying to figure it out in the dark,
right?
We're all looking down in thewater, not always aware of where
each other are.
So just don't, don't take itpersonally unless it is personal.
Sometimes it is personal.
That's a different story.
Just making faces comment.

(20:36):
But before we encouragefighting in the water, common swim
problem number three is havingyour muscles cramped or seize up
or tingle a little bit whileyou're swimming.
Cramps are obviously never funon race day in any of the disciplines,
but they can be extraBothersome when we're in the water.
Coach Joe, what should we doif we start feeling a muscle cramp

(20:57):
up a little bit?
This is really, this is a verytricky subject because a lot of triathletes
have asked me and said, Idon't cramp any other time or barely
swam 200 yards.
And, you know, I can give allthe, the token answers as to say,
make sure you take a salt tabbefore you get in the water.
Make sure, you know, you'vehad bananas and your potassium and

(21:20):
sodium are high.
It seems not to come back towhat they've taken in.
I.
I've tried to analyze it abunch in my head.
A lot of times.
I think we are, you know, sofull of adrenaline and nerves.
There's a lot of musclecontraction when we start the swim
due to ankle flexibility.

(21:40):
A lot of people have far moreflexed foot when they're kicking,
and I think a lot of thesefactors lean into them.
Experiencing muscle cramps inthe foot and in the calf, that's
the most common that I see it.
What I've tried to practicewith my athletes is to have them,
again, we're practicing toprevent cramping during race situation,

(22:03):
but even practicing to preventit during workouts is to have them
practice with a kickboard.
This relaxed kicking, meaningI want you to sit in a chair and
I want you to.
Or stand and practice likeyou're kicking a soccer ball.
Like, the flexion of the anklewould be just like kind of floppy
feet.
And they think it's kind ofsilly when I have them practice it,

(22:26):
but I'm like, okay, now we'vedone it on dry land.
Let's take it to a kickboard.
Hands at 10 and 2, head out ofthe water.
I want you to just focus on areally relaxed flexion of the foot
like you're kicking a soccer ball.
And then they try to mirrorthat when they're doing their stroke.
You know, again, this soundssilly, but the more and more they
practice that, that's a musclememory thing.

(22:48):
It's the same thing with the,you know, when I talk about a beat
of a kick and how your beat ofa kick, you know, relates to your
pull.
You can't master a beat of akick unless you've practiced that
a tremendous amount in the pool.
And to master that justbecomes muscle memory of how we're
going to kick to a beat.
So it's the same thing withrelaxing the feet, that flexion of

(23:11):
the ankle.
And the more and more youpractice it, that becomes your kick
when you're racing in openwater, you know what, this kind of
relates back to what we talked about.
When you get cold cocked orhit during the swim, you know, if
you do experience cramping inthe, in a race, you're at one of
those what if moments.
What am I going to do again?

(23:33):
Reset.
But this is where the breathecomes really into play.
This is where you have tothink, I need to focus on getting
as flat as possible, push mychest down, take some of the weight
off my hips and legs, let themkind of float behind me, make this
more of an upper body strokeat this moment, let me get really
flat, focus on a strong pulland I'm going to give my legs a little

(23:56):
bit of a break for a minute.
They're going to kind of justflail behind me for a little bit.
And when you breathe naturalside, every stroke fully oxygenated,
we can often let those calffoot calm down a little bit and that
reset will be enough to getaway with cramping and finish them.
When this happens to me onrace day, it's exactly what you're
talking about.

(24:16):
You start feeling, it's notlike a Charlie horse Caesar, right?
It's just, it's usually thosemuscles kind of just letting you
know, like, I'm not used todoing this for this long in this
weird position.
And the more you swim, themore you get in the pool, the more
you go longer distances, themore your body gets used to it.
Love all your suggestions,Joe, for how to even try to prevent

(24:36):
that before you get in a race situation.
And if you're in a racesituation, as you're going through
the body cues of just, okay,put more onto your arms, relax your
body, relax your legs.
I found myself just trying torehearse that sitting here at my
desk because just keep moving forward.
And I've never had, Joe, I'venever gotten onto the bike or the

(24:57):
run and had those cramps.
Follow me.
It's very unique to beinghorizontal in the water.
And once you're out of thatsituation, like your legs kind of
return, the blood flow returnsto normal and your body, your legs
are turned to normal.
So common swim problem number four.
This is what kind of my storyfrom the warm up question.

(25:17):
Suffering a panic attack orother form of fight or flight anxiety
during a swim.
This can happen to beginnersas well as experienced triathletes
like myself.
It can be somewhat expected.
Like you went into the swimalready nervous and so you thought
you might freak out.
Or it can be unexpected, likeit was for me, when I got into the
water, having never had anyissues before.

(25:37):
But, Joe, if we're in thewater and we start to panic, feel
nervous, feel claustrophobic,I know a lot of people in their first
wetsuit swimming, they feel claustrophobic.
You've got a wetsuit,neoprene, hugging your body, you've
got a swim cap on, you've gotgoggles on.
People, people can.
Can lose their.
Their heads a little bit.
What do we do if this happensto us in the water?

(25:57):
And this is another one.
This is probably the one I getmost questions about.
And a lot of athletesexperience this.
And the thing that's amazingabout this, you can be the most advanced
swimmer.
You can be a collegiateswimmer who is Athlon, and they'll
experience it for the firsttime, you know, and they're like,
I don't know what happened to me.
I'm a very gifted sw.

(26:18):
So, you know, anxiety, panicattack can sneak up on anybody in
life and in the pool.
And so, you know, you know,this is, this is one thing that I
do always kind of all of theseissues we're talking about, I relate
back to before we race, whatis going on?
And that's where.
When I, when I coach athletesas to open water swimming and as

(26:41):
to the what if.
Of what happens when we have apanic attack or anxiety, I relate
it back to.
There's going to be anxietyall day, but usually that anxiousness
or those extreme nerves arestarting way before we start the
race.
If we can somehow calm ournervous system, lower our heart rate,

(27:05):
distract ourselves a littlebit from the race environment around
us, calm ourselves, we're muchmore likely, if we're in a calmer
state, to start the race, tobe less anxious.
That's building.
If we are all nerves, about tothrow up all of these things as we,
as we start the race, we'resetting ourselves up to be very anxious

(27:28):
to experience a panic attack,to be set off at any moment when.
If someone touches us or ifsomeone grabs us or we can't catch
our breath, all of thosethings, you know, and you, you're
so sick of hearing me talkabout it.
But when I do talk about boxbreathing, yoga technique of, you
know, of controlling ourbreath, calming our nervous system,

(27:50):
anyone can Google boxbreathing or check it out on YouTube.
There's lots of people thattalk about a lot of yogis out there.
It's a technique I use whenI'm flying because I'm not a good
flyer.
You know, those are thingsthat you can Use in all aspects of
life that help you insituations that are just very rattling.
And so I encourage, I mean Ihad a guy that just did Texas and

(28:11):
I mean to have him have to.
The house I just moved to ison a lake.
So I had a lot of my swimmersout practicing with me at my own
house and but to have this bigguy, I'm like, okay, we're going
to stand here together andpractice box breathing.
And he was like, oh, I meanlike it was such an eye opening experience
for him.
I said use this in all aspectsof life.

(28:32):
But I will guarantee you ifyou practice it for the 10 minutes
that you are walking in thatline to enter the water, you're going
to be in a much better place.
When you enter that water,you're going to, you're going to
feel calm.
You know, I tell them two things.
We're going to box, breathefor 10 minutes and then we're going
to smile when we hit thatwater because we've made it.
We, we've survived thetraining and we've made it in that,

(28:53):
in that state.
It still happens that we,these things happen in the water.
Our goggles get knocked off,we inhale, we get hit.
Panic attack is very, very,very, very common.
I don't want people to feellike they can't enter triathlon or
they, they a swim becausethey've experienced panic attacks
or anxiety in the water.

(29:14):
It has happened to everyone.
What do we do in those situations?
This is a very, very importantthing is that we have a go to plan
and I, I make them repeat itto me.
What is your go to plan?
And you're going to panic.
What are you going to do?
Some people that's, I got toflip on my back, I got to take some
deep breaths.
Other people, I've got a breaststroke.

(29:36):
I had an athlete, she'll knowwho she is.
Tiffany Goada, who said cameout of Ironman, Texas and said I
sidestroked the whole thing.
I mean sometimes you gotta dowhat you have to do.
Yeah, got it done.
If you're experienced, yes.
You know, and so go to plan isimportant, but it's not effective
unless it is practiced.

(29:57):
So you know, jokingly, duringswim sessions with, you know, my
athletes, if we're working onstroke at the pool, I yell go to.
They know exactly what that means.
Some are flipping on theirback, some are breaststroking, you
know, some are getting us tothe lane rope as fast as they can.
Nothing wrong with looking fora kayak or a buoy and resetting saying

(30:20):
I need three minutes righthere to be able to breathe without
being underwater and I need tocalm myself down and my heart rate
down and then I can get backto swimming.
So if I can emphasize anythingthe most, it's that that go to plan
has to be practiced and Istill practice mine.
So, you know, I really wantathletes out there to formulate that

(30:44):
go to plan for themselves orsend me questions about how do I
figure out what's best for meand then talk about practicing that
so that you can implement itwhen it comes to race day.
Yeah, absolutely.
Love that, Joe.
And I think for me, when I wasexperiencing that in Daytona, and
this is easy for me to saybecause that was, it was a race I
was doing for fun, to be apart of the trout community there
in Daytona, I wasn't gunningfor a certain time or a PR or something,

(31:07):
but, but these can be momentswhere if, if you're so caught up
on swimming a certain time orhitting a certain time on the day
and, and you know, you've had1, 2, 3 mini panic attacks and you're
out of breath and you'restruggling in the water and, and
if you're still holding on tothat goal, is that like at a certain
point, like you'll have toswitch mindsets to, to let me just

(31:29):
finish this swim and, and justlet your.
Because that will relax.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let me get to the next buoy.
That's a great point, Joe.
Really chunk it.
Let me get to the next buoyand, and try to stay relaxed, keep
your head in the water,breathe to your favorite side, all
the things we're talking aboutand then once you're out of the water.
Okay, well, let's, let'sreturn to, let's evaluate where we're

(31:50):
at with our time and maybe,maybe, maybe you can keep the A goal,
maybe you move on to the B goal.
But at a certain point, likeif you're trying to hold on to something
that is continuing to triggermore getting out of breath, more
feeling anxious, more panicattacks, let that go and let the
next buoy and that swim finishline and that swim out be the next

(32:10):
goal.
There's one more thing I wantto mention here because sometimes
we don't find ourselves in afull blown panic attack or crawling
out of our skin situation, butwe can feel it sneaking up.
We can feel nerves there is there.
This applies to a lot ofthings that we experience in these
what if moments, but a lot ofit is distraction.

(32:32):
This is really psychologybehind swimming.
It is distraction.
If we can trick the mind intofocusing on something else.
The mind doesn't have time tobe focusing on.
Oh, my God, I'm gettingnervous now.
I feel like I can't breathe.
I feel like I'm out of breath.
All of these sneaky thoughtsthat creep into us.
And the two things that havebeen most effective when it comes
to coaching athletes for mehas been counting stroke.

(32:56):
Counting stroke.
If you can say, I'm going tocount 50 strokes.
There is something aboutrefocusing that shifts your mind
away from nerves and feelinglike, I can't, my day is over.
It's all coming down on meright now in this moment.
For other people, a mantra orrepeating something that's comforting

(33:17):
words or humming and singing a song.
Something about hummingreverses those feelings of anxiousness.
You know, people will humbecause it's a calming.
It's a calming mechanism that,you know, kids do.
You see them hum if they're nervous.
So those are a couple ofthings that I encourage.
But again, all of them have tobe practiced.

(33:37):
So getting out in open water,getting in some, you know, some current,
getting in some choppy water,those are great experiences for being
like, okay, I'm starting tofeel a little bit of nerves here.
I'm going to go ahead andsing, you know, the next song from
Jelly Roll.
I don't know, you're going to,you know, whatever it is for you.
But sometimes picking afavorite song, it's hard to sing

(34:01):
that song and focus on thenerves that are building.
I, I've, I've done quite a bitof people watching as I swim.
I'm sure you have as well.
I mean, just start, startfocusing on people around you and,
you know, count, count howmany people you, you see with the
same wetsuit as you like.
Oh, oh, there's a sailfish.
There's a sailfish.
There's a roka.
There's a roka.

(34:21):
You know, you might noticesomebody and be like, oh, man, that
guy's got a ridiculous, like, stroke.
Like, just start, I mean,start, like, start.
Start watching how people swimand start noticing the people and
the things around you.
Coach Joe Common swim problemnumber five is dealing with the effects
of cold water.
We could talk about extra warmwater a little bit as well, but I
think cold water is more whatpeople struggle with a little bit

(34:44):
more frequently.
In Texas, we do with warmwater quite a bit.
But, Joe, this can be numbnessin the arms and legs that people
experience.
This can be getting bodyshivers as you're swimming.
This can be even the earlysigns of hypothermia.
But if we're out in the waterand we find ourselves being impacted
by the cold water, what shouldwe do?

(35:05):
This is one.
In all my years of racing, Ithink that the toughest race and
in the effects of cold wateron me when I probably Arizona, I
think that was two years ago.
I think the water was about 57 degrees.
It's very tricky in dealingwith that.
Some of us hate cold.
I hate cold.
I'd rather not swim in awetsuit, 100%.

(35:28):
But get on a given day, you'regiven a very cold swim and I know
you've experienced those too.
Andrew.
There is a, a number of thingswe can do physically to prep ourselves
for a cold swim.
Secondly, there are thosemental tricks that, that we, some
of them we've already talked about.
You know, swimming in coldwater pre race is great.

(35:49):
The shock value of enteringthat water, how it feels kind of
takes your breath away.
The burning on the face, allof these things.
The burning on the hands.
And we feel.
Racing St.
George, for instance, it was agreat idea to get in the water two
times before the race therebecause it wasn't as shocking.
You know, it didn't.
My nerves were much more settled.

(36:10):
I knew what I was going to experience.
So that's a number one.
Number two is what can we doto the body itself to keep it as
warm as possible before weenter that water.
We want to start out as warmas possible before we hit that water
because we're going to losebody heat real quick.
One great thing, my friend andco coach John Mayfield has always

(36:33):
talked about a thermos of warm water.
Sounds silly, but I was thefirst one at Arizona to pour that
down my wetsuit to get thatwarm water in my body.
Your body continues to warmthat water.
When you enter the water, youthen have this barrier.
You do, of course, cold wateris going to enter the wetsuit, but
it's super tight and you havethat layer of warm water already

(36:55):
keeping your body warmer.
Secondly, what are we going todo to protect our face, exposed areas.
And that's going to be, goahead and lube up.
You're going to need to takeaquifer, Vaseline, something that's
a barrier or a skin protectant.
And I, it's, it's, it's gross.
I mean, I vaselined my face,my hands, I didn't do the palms because

(37:17):
you're not going to be able togrip anything for the next four days
if you do Too much Vaseline.
But the back of your hands,your feet, your ankles, neck, anything
that's going to be exposed, itcreates a barrier and it keeps you
warmer.
Lastly, well, two more thingsyou can.
You see, sometimes swimmersswim in booties or skull caps.

(37:40):
Skull cap is very, it's not uncomfortable.
That's in, in Coeur d' Alene,I did wear a skull cap due to the
water temperature.
Booties are a little bit, theyfill with water and they cause a
lot of drag.
So that's very tricky unlessyou get some super good fitting booties
to protect your feet.
And then lastly is a double cap.
Double cap is a great idea.

(38:01):
Even if you take a latex undera silicone, they don't have to.
That kind of, that combinationlatex and silicone has worked well
for me.
They don't slip, but itdefinitely keeps the head warmer
and we lose a lot of bodywarmth through our scalp, through
our, through the head.
So that is, that, that works well.
So now you've completelycovered yourself with Vaseline, warm

(38:22):
water wetsuit double cap.
You're as warm as possible.
But also layering.
Don't be standing out there inyour, in your, in your kit with your,
with your wetsuit down.
You know, when it's 40 degreesoutside, stay warm, keep your feet,
keep sauce on, keep your feetcovered until the last possible moment
when you take those things off.

(38:43):
Now, mentally, when we get inthe water, we're going to have that
shock moment no matter what we do.
And that's.
It goes back to everythingwe've talked about.
Focusing on body position.
I'm going to stay as flat as possible.
I'm going to breathe to mynatural side every stroke.
I'm going to keep as muchoxygen in this body as I can because
that's going to calm mynervous system.

(39:03):
That's going to keep my breathunder control and keep my heart rate
down.
Cold will, will cause, youknow, nerves, heart rate.
All of that's going to kind ofgo into what you said, you know,
that, that scary mode of whatam I going to do at this point?
But you know, focusing onbreathing every stroke is going to
keep you calmer.
And lastly, I have so much.

(39:23):
I could talk about this.
I could go on for 17 days.
So I'm trying to concise this is.
Why I only booked you for this episode.
I don't need anybody else forthis joke.
And cover it up.
She's a talker, man.
She can talk.
I mean, I'm just like, shut up.
But you know, when I talkabout the, the distraction mechanism
when it comes to cold.
It's, it's a, it's a gamechanger because that's something

(39:43):
you should practice in that.
I'm going to count my strokesor check out, you know, the wetsuits
around me or landmarks.
You've got to have something.
Singing for me was a big oneduring Arizona because I was like,
I think I sang I am so cold.
Like, I mean, I think itbecame a song that I created.
But anything to kind of makeme laugh and like, you know, to lessen

(40:05):
the severity of the moment.
It's going to help you.
Yeah, love all that, Joe.
And, and just, it's almostlike marginal gains on the bike,
right?
Like, we look for ways to, tomarginally be a little bit faster
on the bike.
You're talking about pairing5, 6, 7 different ways to be marginally
warmer on your swim andletting all of that kind of help
see you through to the finish.
If you go in with a plan andlike Joe said, have a plan for what

(40:28):
am I going to do when I startshivering a little bit on the swim?
I'm going to distract myself.
I'm going to double down on mywarming measures.
I might pee in my wetsuit.
Whatever it takes.
Lots of good stuff there.
So two more common swimproblems to talk about.
This next one, Joe, is commonswim problem number six.
This is experiencing chafingor rubbing from your wetsuit.

(40:51):
I personally, Joe, have onlyhad this problem on salt water races
and I don't race in saltwateroften enough to remember that.
And so I almost always end upgetting chafed from saltwater events.
And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right.
Because there's salt water.
I should have done more.
But talk to us about.
It's one thing, I think, tonotice it after the swim, like the
next day or something, but ifwe're out there and we can feel the

(41:13):
rubbing begin to happen and itstarts to become bothersome, what
should we do?
Definitely it's always thataha moment when you get in the shower
after the race and you'relike, like blood curdling because
you're like, oh, I didn't knowI had that.
That's.
That's new.
You know, chafing in, in openwater, it's definitely.
You tend to, tend to have thatoccur a lot more often in those saltwater

(41:37):
swims.
I mean, I felt like Kona wasprobably some of the worst chafing
in a swim skin of all things,because I just don't think you're
expecting that that's going tohappen just due to, you know, how,
how different the water isthan we're swimming, lake or river.
Your most common areas you'regoing to see on people is the back
of their neck.
In saltwater, you'll often seethe side of the neck, you know, and

(42:02):
then for my athletes, oftenunder the arm as far as wearing a
sleeveless wetsuit or a swim skin.
So a couple of things.
Any anti chafe product youcan, specific anti chafe products
or Aquifer, Vaseline, anythingthat's cheap, more is better.
So make sure that you'veapplied it to all those areas that

(42:24):
you've experienced it.
Yeah.
The chafing in the back of theneck is often due to how much we're
sighting, how much of, youknow, how much tilt we have in our
stroke.
You know, now we've, we'resitting up, our chest, upper torso
is now rising, head is up.
When we do, when we lift thatneck, you know, we're exposing the
back of the neck to just thatrough Velcro, that latch on the wetsuit.

(42:47):
So most of the time you'll,you'll realize that you cited a whole
bunch when you have chafingback there.
So, you know, ways to preventthat is getting better at sighting,
you know, and we talk about this.
You just mentioned you can seewetsuits to your left and right.
If you can see swimmers totheir left and right, you're in the
right spot.
You're you.
You know, it becomes habit topick our head up every three strokes

(43:10):
because we, we have fear.
We, we are blind and we can't see.
But noticing where you areswimming with other swimmers around
you, you know, having a groupand saying we're going to swim from
here to that point in the lakeor that buoy, you know, when you
do that and you could seeswimmers to your left and right,
it, you don't need to pickyour head up.

(43:31):
You know, try counting to 50before you pick your head up.
So, you know, kind ofeliminating that unnecessary sighting
will help prevent the chafingon the back of the neck.
I had a couple more things.
Let me think on this for a second.
Oh, yeah.
Specifically, what I've used,and it's been very helpful, is sports
tape, rock tape.

(43:52):
You know, when people justinevitably are going to chafe and
it's going to derail the restof their race.
I had an athlete who had somesevere chafing, you know, on the
upper part of underneath thearm that, you know, then running
became very, very, verypainful for the rest of the Ironman.
So when you know that's goingto happen, rock tape will not come

(44:13):
off during, during an Ironman event.
So, you know, putting a smallsection on the back of your neck
or on the side of your neck,if you're going to be in salt water
swim skin or underneath thosearm, it's going to save you tremendous
amount of pain.
And so if, you know, youalways do use the rock tape and it
will be very helpful inpreventing that chafing.

(44:33):
Yeah, I know.
Another thing to look out for,Joe, is when you are putting your
swim skin on, you're puttingyour wetsuit on, make sure there's
no Velcro exposed to your bodyif you're putting it on properly,
right?
Having somebody help you andmake sure the leash is squared away
properly and the Velcro isn'ttouching you.
I think the first time I everhad, it's called a wetsuit hickey,

(44:55):
right?
When your wetsuit, like,burns, burns you somewhere on your
neck, then they call it awetsuit hickey.
My very first open water eventand Lake Rockwall in the Dallas Fort
Worth Metroplex.
I had a wetsuit hickey rollingin the work on Monday after that
race, Olympic distance triathlon.
And I just didn't, I didn'tsecure the wetsuit properly.
It was the exact spot wherethere's Velcro, the Velcro attached.

(45:18):
And I was just too novice atthe time to know to look for that.
And now I know.
Okay, make sure someone getseyes on my wetsuit to make sure the
leash on Jazz isn't going tobe rubbing my neck throughout that
event.
And two, I think the othertime I've really had it happen is
again, in saltwater or if I'mwearing like a sleeveless tri suit
or even a sleeve tri suit.

(45:40):
Know where your zippers are.
Know where the, the stitching is.
Because if you've got yourtriathlon suit on under that wetsuit
and maybe you put yourlubrication in the right spots where
your wetsuit comes intocontact, but you didn't lube where
the edge of your tri suit is.
That can also rub during aswim event.
Then all of a sudden you'vegot all these marks where your tri

(46:01):
kit comes into contact withyour skin, but not your wetsuit.
So just be aware of all thosecontact points, right?
And Joe, like you said, lubethem judiciously or generously.
You're exactly right.
I will say the zipper, thebelly button and the heart rate monitor
for Women under.
I mean men too, but for womenit can be excruciating.

(46:24):
So more is better when itcomes to anti chafe products.
Yeah, don't be shy with those products.
Lather up.
Joe.
Common swim problem numberseven is having problems getting
your wetsuit on or off.
So this isn't really a problemin the water itself, but this is
a problem right before youstart the race when you're getting

(46:45):
the wetsuit on or in T1 whenyou're trying to get to the bike
portion of the race.
Some people get stuck, right?
They get stuck, their footgets stuck.
They have problems justgetting that neoprene off and peeling
it off quickly and efficiently.
I've seen people in transitionstart to panic and then their heart
rate spikes and it takes themeven longer to get that wetsuit off.

(47:06):
So talk to us about this.
How can we.
Even if you're practicingthis, I think it's going to happen.
So if you find yourself havingwetsuit issues, getting it off, what
do we do on race day?
You know, this is a reallyimportant question and it's really
twofold.
So we're talking about gettingit on properly, we're talking about
getting it off properly,getting it on.
One thing that I relay to myathletes now with how Ironman events

(47:29):
are run, half or full, theyare lining up athletes way early.
Athletes are getting in linebehind their designated sign for
swim time very early.
We're looking at an hourbefore swim start.
So what happens is, you know,you're very nervous, you're not paying
very close to time and thenthere's a mad rush to get that wetsuit

(47:50):
on.
So when I talk to them aboutwhen that transition is set up and
you are at swim site, you aregetting that wetsuit on, you're going
to get it up to hip becauseeach if it is a good fitting wetsuit,
it's going to take 20 minutesto get it feeling perfect.
And that means you have tostart way down at the ankle.
We need to get this wetsuit ashigh as possible to ensure very good

(48:14):
shoulder mobility.
Nothing sucks more than havingit pulling on your shoulders because
we didn't get that wetsuithigh enough often.
This takes an assistant.
We need help.
We need somebody once we'vegot it up the hip to give us a really,
as Jeanette Anderson orShannon Cranston will say, who are
both tried out athletes, Ineed someone to give me a good wedgie

(48:36):
on this.
I want a neoprene wedgie onrace, neoprene wedgie.
Get this sucker as high as we can.
So it's very important toallow yourself enough time to get
that wetsuit on properly.
Part of that comfort level ofattaching the back of that wetsuit,
so, you know, make sure you'renot choking yourself out by attaching

(48:56):
it.
You know, I like to leave it alittle bit looser.
It gives you a little bit morefeeling that you can breathe.
So that's important as far asgetting it on.
Second is baggies on the feet,gloves on the hand.
That's helpful for making surewe don't tear that super expensive
wetsuit we've just invested in.

(49:16):
And also another techniqueJohn Mayfield uses is to pull from
the inside of the fabric.
So when you have it on yourlegs and you've got it your ankles
into the.
Into the, the leg holes, usethe interior to pull and you will
not be able to tear thewetsuit as you're pulling it up.
So that's.
Those are just sometechniques, you know, some people

(49:37):
will glide their ankles, lubetheir ankles and hands, and if it's
a very tight wetsuit, to getit on more easily.
The question then becomes,we've swam, we're kind of discombobulated,
we're coming out of the water.
And this is something I havemy athletes practice religiously
is pull your goggles up, butdon't take them off, because then

(50:00):
you've got goggles or swim capin hand and you're trying to take
a wetsuit off, it just becomes hot.
Yeah, you're a hot mess atthat point.
So the point is, lift them up.
Now I can see, not blind, butlet's just leave what we have up
here going on.
Let's just leave two hands,and then.
You have two hands to work with.
And, you know, in Azurefinishing swim, that last 100 yards,

(50:23):
mentally, you know the imageryof what I'm doing step by step.
So for me, when I'm swimmingin, I'm like, goggles up, unlatch
the top, pull the stream down.
Like, sometimes you got to saythese things to yourself, and you're
going to have a much fastertransition onto the bike, an easier
time getting that wetsuit off.
Take advantage of help whenyou can get it during a race.

(50:46):
So do not be shy.
You're going to have to throwyourself down on your back.
Once that wetsuit is down tothe hip, it is amazing how they can
pull a wetsuit off in 2.5 seconds.
Yeah, yeah.
And then, you know, they throwit at you.
You're up and you're on.
You're on your way.
There are instances, as Irelate back to like Arizona and that
we, we still weren't havingthe peelers, you know, assistant

(51:11):
in that, in that point.
Volunteers can help you in transition.
They are allowed to touch you.
It's like, you know, if yousay, can you help me?
You know, they can definitelyhelp you.
If you have, for some reasoncouldn't get it unlatched or couldn't
find the string or your handsare too cold to handle anything,
a volunteer can, can help you.

(51:32):
If you ask them that.
That's within the rules.
If you're just, if, if you areon your own getting it down to your
hip, it becomes that, that leggame of which leg can I step on first
to pull, you know, and to getit off.
But also, if you're reallystruggling, don't hesitate to sit
down, let your heart rate comedown, take some deep breaths.

(51:53):
You're probably not going towin this race.
On the 15 seconds you, youchoose to sit down to get that wetsuit
off.
So if it's going to make for asmoother transition and a smoother
start to getting onto thatbike, just a, just settle down for
a minute, sit down and takeyour time and remove the wetsuit.
Yeah.
The only time, Joe, I've everhad a problem getting my wetsuit

(52:14):
off is if it gets caught on mytiming chip around my ankle, right?
Because we can practice thislike when we're doing our open water
swim training around town.
We can practice this in ourhotel rooms or our homes.
Taking the wetsuit on, puttingthe wetsuit on, taking it off.
But you can't really simulatethat, that timing chip being on the

(52:34):
ankle unless you happen tohave one at home or maybe get creative
with something different at home.
But that, that I never thinkabout it until all of a sudden, like,
oh, man, I've got all thisneoprene bundled up around my ankle.
It's clearly caught in atiming chip.
And just like I said, all Ican do is sit down right, not rush
myself, not spike the heartrate, just, just finagle it off with
my hands, take as long as ittakes and I'll get that time back.

(52:57):
Not letting my heart ratespike bike, right.
Once I'm on the bike, Joe, I'mgonna ask this.
This is not in the officialmarks, but I'm gonna call this the
unofficial bonus.
Swim problem number eight.
What do you tell an athlete todo if they're in their wetsuit and
they gotta pee, they gotta goto the bathroom.
You can be like you said,like, sometimes you're queued up
an hour before the race inyour wetsuit.

(53:18):
Sometimes, you know, if it'sgonna take you an hour and 20 minutes,
hour and 40 minutes to do theswim, leg up the race.
You're out there in the waterand all of a sudden, man, I gotta
pee.
What do you do?
How do you relieve yourselfonce you're in that wetsuit?
I'm gonna tell you something, Andrew.
I must be in.
Been in this sport way toolong or I've lost too much femininity
in this sport.
Or I've raised three sons andI just have, you know, again, it's

(53:42):
like when you wanted, when youwanted someone to talk about the
ones and twos of triathlon.
I didn't even understand whyanybody would hesitate.
I'm like, this is a major partof our race day, guys.
If you are standing in line atan Ironman and there is a full line
of puddle underneath your feetand no one has gotten in the water,

(54:04):
there's your sign.
Everyone has peed.
Everyone has peed.
You know, maybe it's becauseI've carried three big boy babies
that it's not even an optionfor me.
It becomes, oh, I guess I'm peeing.
I mean, you don't even know.
At some points, nerves areplaying into that anxiety.
We hydrated like crazy peoplefor three days.

(54:27):
Just let it go, let it go.
Just be free, you know, Ithink it's much easier to pee when
you're about to enter thewater than you.
Than when you're all nervousand in the middle of a swim stroke
as far as.
Yeah, it becomes, that becomes.
The bigger problem is how do Ipee in the water?
And for that I, I'veinstructed a lot of my athletes.

(54:48):
Most of the time you've got todo breaststroke.
You've got to relax enough.
Yeah.
Because doing full strokefreestyle becomes very difficult
to pee in the water.
But you know, it is a greatopportunity if you can do a few strokes
of breaststroke to, to goahead and pee so you don't have that
urgency when you get intotransition or onto the bike.

(55:08):
Sorry if that's gross, but youknow, I am who I am.
It's a growth sport.
It's a gross sport.
Great set, everyone.
Let's cool down onto the cooldown portion of the show.
And I'm excited for this switch.
We've had podcast co hostVanessa Roxley for over a year now,

(55:30):
has been doing a CoachCooldown tip on the cool down portion
of our show where she has adifferent Coach, come on and just
give us a quick training tip.
And that's been a really funway to feature some coaches that
don't come on the podcast regularly.
But we are switching gears alittle bit here to have our cooldowns
now feature a question fromthe audience.
We get questions all the time,sometimes through Facebook, sometimes

(55:53):
through the community hub,sometimes I'll get direct messages
from people.
We do have a podcast voicemailsystem on the website and every now
and then someone will leave a voicemail.
And so, yeah, every 25episodes we'll do an audience Q and
A episode, but that's roughlytwice a year for our show.
And so, yeah, we just want toget more direct questions from you,
our audience.
If you ever have one, ping me,reach out, find the voicemail on

(56:16):
the website, hit us up, tag meor Sarah Burney or one of our coaches
on the I'm trying to Facebook group.
Let us know what yourquestions are.
And every show I'm going toask the coaches on that show one
audience member question andcoach Joe for today's question.
This comes from Michelle.
She said, I get lots of swimsets that include 25s and she says,

(56:39):
I swim in a 50 meter pool.
So what is the best way inthose training sessions to adjust?
I'm in a 50 meter pool, trot'sgiving me a 25 meter interval.
How can we adjust to kind ofmake that work with the pool that
we have?
I really love this questionbecause it's an opportunity to explain

(57:01):
one concept that I use a lotwith my athletes as far as it's very
tricky in pool swimming tomaster pace in, in, in, you know,
GPS isn't always superaccurate when we're talking about,
you know, what are, how manylaps we've done.
I get a lot of questions aboutthat or you know, it's, it's missing
yardage for me.

(57:22):
I'm not, you know, I'm notgetting full credit for, you know,
my workout or it says I did 75versus 50.
You know, all of thesequestions and one thing I related
them and it works well foropen water as well as pool swimming
is the concept of RPE or rateof perceived exertion.
So when I'm talking to themabout this, I'm talking about you

(57:43):
need to start feeling whatzone one, zone two would feel like.
When I talk about zone one andtwo, I talk about very comfortable,
easy swimming, focusing onstroke, drilling.
That's what I define for there.
Zone three, I talk about,okay, we're going to push a little
Bit we're going to talk aboutmaybe 50% effort, 50% of all out.

(58:04):
Zone four, we've moved on to75% effort.
We're talking about almost allout, but we're not killing ourselves
yet.
Then zone five, zone six,we're going all out.
We're putting pedal to the metal.
We are, we're, we're fullforce ahead.
I think her question,Michelle's question is great because
you can use that sense of RPE.
Say for instance, she has a 25meter interval at zone 5.

(58:29):
It's, it's a fast interval.
She needs, she needs to reallypush it.
And usually the shortintervals are short and hard, right?
Yeah.
So there's two ways she can do it.
She can use, you know, she cankind of in her mind estimate what
half the pool is.
You know, sometimes that'smarked, sometimes it's not.
Different pools, you know, soshe can give full force effort.

(58:51):
Zone five, pushing hard, halfthe pool.
Then ease out, relax into itand recover on that second 25.
Another thing she can do is tohave a gauge of what half the pool
is.
She can beforehand or asession beforehand.
She can push a 50, push thewhole 50 and count her stroke rate.

(59:13):
Then divide that by two.
And you've come up with, comeup math.
You know, I'm nomathematician, you know, come up
with we, you know, If I swim25 strokes at, you know, full force,
that's equivalent to a 25 if Iwas in a 25 pool or close to it.
It's not going to be an exactscience, but the purpose of the interval

(59:34):
will be satisfied is that itwas to push her for 25.
You don't get the recoverywhere you're sitting, but you can
make that a very easy, youknow, switch to breaststroke, turn
on your back, you know, drill,you know, for the, for the, for the
remainder of the lap.
So that would be my advice.
It's tricky when you areassigned intervals or workouts that

(59:56):
don't really work with, youknow, a 50 meter pool.
But we have to do the best we can.
And that satisfies the purposeof that interval.
Yeah, we get questions likethis, Joe, that take different forms.
Right.
Some people swim in 33 meterlong pools.
So none of the intervalsreally, you know, there's so many
edge cases with what, what isthe size of your body of water?
So people tether themselves inthe backyard.

(01:00:16):
How do I do the training?
If, if.
I don't know if Michelle doesor not.
But if you're an athletelistening to this and you encounter
something like this and youhave the smart goggles.
You know, whether they're formsmart goggles or otherwise.
Really, when trynout is givingyou that distance, it's not the distance.
Try not really cares about.
Try not cares about the time.
Try not cares about how longyou've been swimming at a certain

(01:00:39):
intensity.
And so if you know, oh my 25at zone 5 to go off Joanna's example
is going to take me 20 secondsto get across the 25 yard pool, swim
in zone five for 20 secondsand then brushstroke the rest of
the way.
And you know, your train x4might end up being a little skewed
because your pool just isn'tthe right fit for the way the workout

(01:01:00):
was prescribed.
But you're going to bespending the right amount of time
in the appropriate zone.
Now, if you're swimming offyour watch or the pace clock, actually
the pace clock might work wellfor this, for everybody.
Joe, if there's a pace clockat the pool where you're swimming,
you know, you just keep an eyeon it when you're taking a breath
and once you've hit 20 secondsat your zone, ease off and get yourself

(01:01:21):
to the wall.
So yeah, lots of good ideashere for how to execute that.
Your training score probablyisn't going to clock in being perfect,
but you'll walk away knowing Idid the best I could with kind of
the training environment thatI have.
Thanks for joining us.
Make sure to subscribe andshare the Tridot podcast with your
triathlon crew for more greattri content and community.

(01:01:44):
Connect with us on Facebook,YouTube and Instagram.
Ready to optimize your training?
Head to tridot.com and startyour free trial today.
Tridot, the obvious andautomatic choice for triathlon training.