- If you are not into hard work, change the channel now.
(whooshing)
I guarantee that you too can have huge leap
in your triathlon performance.
(whooshing)
Wasn't rocket science what I did.
I think it was really just like four simple things.
(whooshing)
What's up, trainiacs?
I'm gonna be honest.
I'm a little grumpy.
My Mac Book just fell off of a couch
that's that high and broke.
Done.
Toast.
On the bright side, I had an excellent Zwift workout
this morning.
(rain falling)
Apparently, it rains on Zwift.
And had a new FTP.
Bike fitness is more or less back where it was
at my peak in the summer, and I got an entire winter
of getting beastly ahead of me.
It's gonna be good.
Big disclaimer about this video.
If you are not into hard work, change the channel now.
Go find somebody else.
Go like, I dunno, find a knitting YouTube channel,
something like that.
Salty today.
Today we're talking about the year,
about three or four years into my triathlon career,
that I said you know what, I'm gonna dedicate myself
to fitness.
And the first couple years of doing triathlon,
I was dong about a 126 sprint triathlon.
I had done a 302 and a 253 Olympic.
I was anything but spectacular,
but going into my third year of triathlon,
I wanted to see how fast I could get,
and I ended up bringing that time down
in a matter of about three and 1/2 months of dedication
down to the first sprint was a 112,
and then I did a 111 and then a 108,
and since that time, I've been able to do 108s, 107s,
214 Olympics, a 446 half Ironman.
There was that turning point in my triathlon career
that I made a huge leap, and I've managed to keep it.
And the lessons that I took in that three month period
are lessons that anyone can take
because it wasn't rocket science what I did.
I think it was really just like four simple things
that I committed myself to that any of you
can commit yourself to.
Now, the first thing is that when I was doing
those first couple years of triathlon,
I was still a little bit pudgy, a little overweight.
I'm still a little bit pudgy and overweight,
but I was particularly pudgy and overweight.
Looking back at those pictures,
I was probably somewhere around 175 to 180.
Over that winter, I gave up gluten because my dad is celiac.
I ate like him just because I went up to the lake
and didn't bring any food, so I ate all
of his gluten-free food, and I felt pretty good,
so I kept with it for a few days after coming back
to the lake.
Still felt even better.
Continued on with that, and then just magically,
my weight went from that 175 to 180 down to about 160
without really changing anything.
Now, that's not to say that you have to give up gluten,
that's the only way to do it,
but it's just to say that if you take a closer look
at your diet and you think about where you can get
a little bit healthier, maybe try a different diet
here or there and see what works for your body.
Shaving off that excess poundage is a huge leg up
on your competition.
It's less weight that you've gotta lug around the course.
It's easier for you to train because there's less pounding
on the ground, so you're gonna recover faster,
you're gonna move faster.
All good things.
The second lesson was that I had a bit of a mental barrier
of pain going fast.
As soon as I would start running fast or riding fast,
I would get that (panting) like that little bit
of panic feeling that it was going too fast,
but what I said was I gotta break
through this mental barrier, this plateau.
I gotta push through it, and what I did
was I started doing wind sprints across soccer fields
or on a track, or I would do really intense bursts
of 20 to 30 seconds on a bike trainer.
I was basically trying to condition my body
that pain was okay, it was okay to feel like that,
and it was just more like a survival mechanism
that we had that feeling,
not any real reason that we weren't able to do it.
I just needed to get through that mental hurdle
of pain not being okay.
And right now, if you are coached by Coach Pat,
you'd better like some pain.
The third thing that I did was I committed
to doing longer bikes.
What I felt was happening in the races
is I was getting into Olympic or a sprint
and by the time I'd get onto the run,
my legs would be smashed up because I was doing
a half hour bike here or a 45 minute bike there,
but I wasn't putting in long steady miles on the bike.
And if you've heard me talk about it once,
you've heard me talk about it a zillion times.
Time in the saddle is like a one to one correlation.
The amount of time you put in,
the faster you get coming out.
So what I committed to was that as long
as I wasn't time crunched, having to run to work
or a meeting or do something in the evening,
every single workout was gonna be at least an hour,
and ideally, a really purposeful workout
was and hour and a half or two hours.
That is immensely beneficial
when you're talking about going and racing a sprint
where the bike is a half an hour,
or an Olympic is an hour, hour 15.
So all of a sudden, I was getting onto the run course,
and I was like alright, we just did like a easy peasy bike.
No big deal.
And then the fourth and final thing that I committed to
was I didn't want to be struggling in the water.
I'd had enough of struggling to get my way across the pool,
of doing a master swim or a triathlon swim group workout
and feeling gassed the entire time,
so I broke everything down,
and if you haven't seen it yet, go to (whooshing)
or (whooshing) wherever it is,
triathlontaren.com/swimdrillprogram.
I created a swim drill series for myself
where I said you know what,
let's just break down the mechanics of swimming
and learn how to swim efficiently,
so then when I get into the pool, I'm not struggling,
I'm not out of breath.
All it takes is me being in the pool more
and building that pool fitness.
Once I did that, I committed to swimming
at least two times a week, no less.
And from all of that, I did the math,
I got 15% faster (clapping) boom first race.
Granted, it's hard work, but if you do it,
I guarantee that you too can have a huge leap
in your triathlon performances next year.
All right.
You know what, fortunately, I had a Black Friday win
and got a Mac Book that is sitting at a border town
in Pembina, North Dakota,
so I do have a Mac Book waiting for me.
It just bugs me that it broke.
Later, trainiacs, get fast.