The salient point of this podcast episode revolves around the evolving landscape of professional triathlon, specifically focusing on the PTO world rankings and the recent cancellation of a significant indoor event. We delve into the implications of these changes on athletes and the sport at large, questioning the relevance and effectiveness of the PTO's rankings system in the current triathlon ecosystem. Furthermore, we explore how these developments may affect athletes' motivations and preparation as they navigate the off-season. As we transition into discussions about training strategies for the forthcoming season, we emphasize the importance of foundational training, injury management, and the adoption of effective routines. Join us as we dissect these critical issues and offer insights that may enhance your performance in the competitive triathlon arena.

Links to topics discussed:

The TriDoc Podcast

Matt's Instagram

Jeff's Instagram

LifeSport Coaching

Email Jeff: tri_doc@icloud.com

Email Matt: Matt@thetemponews.com

Signup for the Tempo News

Signup for The TriDoc Podcast Supplement form

Just a note before the show begins.

Matt had some technical issues with his microphone when recording this episode.

You will hear a change in audio partway through the show because of that.

What would happen if you brought together a professional triathlete and producer of one of the most widely read triathlon newsletters.

Together with the tridoc medical contributor for Triathlete Magazine, age group winner and coach at LifeSport coaching.

Let's say you had the makings of a pretty, pretty good podcast.

Welcome to Tempo Talks.

Two perspectives.

One sport all things triathlon.

Hello.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome back to another episode of Tempo Talks.

I'm your host, co host Matthew Sharp, and across the screen for me is the other co host, Jeff Sankoff.

He's in a fun, fun shirt.

Tell the audience about your shirt.

I don't know, I like.

And I'm wearing some festive holiday layover or holiday hangover.

I have pajamas.

I just finished a hard bike workout and some strength downstairs and just quickly got changed into my Snoopy and Woodstock Christmas pj.

I'm feeling very comfortable and you're looking.

Cozy and you deserve it after a couple workouts like that.

That's good.

What was that?

Was it a hard workout on the bike?

It wasn't too terrible.

It was more of a like a 20 minute sweet spot in the middle of a ramp up and a ramp down.

So it wasn't too bad.

And then the strength was just a standard strength.

I'm nursing a couple of things that are getting a little tedious.

I'm still not able to run because I've got this tendonitis in my ankle.

So I'm frustrated by that.

Sounds like you may not be in the pool.

I am swimming.

So I did finally get an MRI and get the confirmation of the injury that I suspected I had all of last year, which is a partial tear of my supraspinatus tendon.

So that's a partial rotator cuff tear.

It's the cause of the discomfort I've had when I'm swimming and likely keeping me from being able to swim as well as I once did, which was never all that well, but it's definitely decreased.

And it is what it is.

I don't need surgery.

Basically, it's just gonna be.

Yeah, it's just gonna be.

He told me, the surgeon, he said, since you're so symptomatic, we could just operate and fix it.

And I said, okay, what's that look like?

He's, oh, 6 to 9.

And I was like, 6 to 9 what?

He's like months of no sport.

And I was like, yeah, no, I think we'll pass on that.

He's, oh, yeah, you don't have to do it.

It's.

That's just what it looks like if you did.

And I was like, yeah, I think I can.

This is not so bad.

I'll deal with the discomfort.

And it's going to go one of two ways.

Either it just stays where it is as long as I don't re injure it.

And the alternative is that it tears and then I have to have the surgery.

So fingers crossed and knock on wood and all that jazz and maybe shorten.

Up your stroke a little bit so you're just not putting as much pressure on your shoulder.

You know what's really interesting, it's not the pull, it's the recovery.

Recovery is.

It's when I reach up is really when it's uncomfortable.

But I noticed that I don't have as strong of a pull.

So I don't know.

I'm going to see a pt.

Hopefully they can help me out.

And we'll see.

We'll see.

It's important to stay on top of those things.

Big things like a tear or even little things.

And that's actually a part of our episode today, Jeff.

Yes, it is.

Through our itinerary.

All right.

On the agenda today, we are going to touch upon the PTO world rankings.

Does anybody know what they are?

And does anybody really then going to move on to the recently canceled T100 indoor event?

Not off to a good 20, 26, T100.

We're going to talk about that.

We're going to finish up with this idea of what are things that people could.

Should be working on at this time of the year.

This is after all the shorter days, darker evenings time when people are maybe a little bit less motivated.

So are there things that people could be doing to try and facilitate and improve their training as they work towards the spring and then those early season races?

But let's begin with the PTO world rankings.

Matt.

What the heck are they and do we care?

It's so funny because when I saw the news article or the articles pop up about this, like, that's my first thought in my head with a lot of this T100 stuff.

Like obviously I pay attention to it, but it's just, it's not Ironman.

So what do people think of this?

Oh, they've changed their rankings, but it's.

At the end of the day I'm kind of like, do people care about this?

Do they even know that the PTO/T100 have these world rankings.

I would love to know what people thinking about that.

But I'm guessing they, they probably didn't.

Most people didn't who aren't really paying too much attention.

But basically the PTO.

I hate saying PTO also because I feel like they've moved the T100 PTO have moved so far away from their original professional triathletes organization kind of vision that they had at the beginning to band together to have pros rise up and take power.

They move so far away from that.

I actually hate saying PTO or referring to pto, but I will do it for this.

And basically yeah, they have these PTO world rankings and they've been doing this yeah essentially ever since the PTO was founded.

Like alluded to, they always wanted to harmonize the professional racing and have this unified vision of what pro racing could be and just give pros more power.

And yeah, one of the things that they brought on pretty early was this PTO world rankings to determine how good long course athletes stacked up against each other.

But it was also to determine who competed.

Right.

Because they would take the top 20 for certain races and stuff.

Right.

I don't know if they even.

Maybe for some of the earlier races like maybe the Collins cup, that whole Collins cup thing which it was like the Ryder cup for triathlon.

Short lasted.

Yeah, two years and a few years.

They tried but yeah, but they had this idea.

Yeah, they wanted to measure long course athletes over 70.3 middle distance and Ironman and yeah, see who ranks the best.

And I think it was, it worked in the beginning.

They really tried to.

It's just hard when you have Ironman in there with 70.3 because the demands.

You can only do so many Ironman races.

A lot of people benefited from having a good Ironman race versus being consistently good at 70 point threes because one of the changes that they brought in there used to be a 5% bonus for your best result.

And obviously if your best result was a full distance Ironman, it I guess juice the ranking for you a little bit.

Yeah, skew thing.

So it wasn't perfect.

But I think if you looked at the end of each year and you saw the results, obviously you know people who won Kona 70.3 worlds like who did well at these competitive PTO open T100 events.

So since the PTO had to start to pivot to profitability, they've had to make some changes that are in their interest.

So this Obviously kind of takes away from the spirit of having a generalized long course pro ranking like I talked about.

They changed it from the 5% bonus for Ironman, so that is gone now.

So Ironman's and 70.3 T100 are ranked in the same way, basically.

So people don't get that nice juice of the rankings for the Ironman.

They also went from three races measured in your ranking to four races, which again aligns with the T100 in terms of racing consistently well across a season.

Just a few things basically to make it so athletes who race well on the T100 circuit will reflect better in.

In the, in the rankings.

In the rankings, yeah.

And of course, like, why wouldn't they do that?

It just obviously it takes away from the original mission, which was to have this generalized and unifying long course world ranking, which again, did anyone really care about this?

I don't know.

Like, it just, I wish it could be neutral, but it can't.

It can't be neutral.

Yeah, I don't know that anybody cares.

I, I certainly.

The problem once again is that the.

They came up with a decent idea and they didn't stick with it.

Right.

For these things to become ingrained in the public mind, you have to let them germinate and you have to stay with it and you have to let it go through a period of time for people to grasp onto it and stick with it and let it get its own momentum.

And the T100 is just terrible at letting things grow.

To Collins.

You mentioned Collins Cup.

That was an event that had some promise.

I didn't love it in its original format, but they tweaked it a little bit and I thought that it had promise.

It certainly had, I thought, the potential to become something much more interesting.

But they just gave up on it after a couple of years.

Now, listen, the pandemic interfered, obviously, but there was an opportunity to bring it back and they just never did.

It just seems like they lose interest.

They seem like they're very into the latest shiny thing and they just move on.

And Ironman picks up on a good idea, which is this pro series.

And Ironman generates a lot of, lot of interest in their pro series and has now had it running for a couple of years.

And I would argue that they've done a much better job at advertising and a much better job of actually massaging the details of it and explaining it to the public and letting people understand.

And over the years they do a really good job of showing people, hey, here's the Rankings.

Here's what the latest race did and here's who's up this week from the I don't know.

Again, I, I People love to comment about how I'm very negative on T100, but I feel like I'm not being necessarily overly negative.

I'm just reporting what I think are their real legitimate failings.

I think that this is an organization that has had a lot of opportunities to do things that are exciting and new and they just continue to either misstep or not stick with good ideas.

And I think it's unfortunate.

I think it's really unfortunate.

Now they have a good ser.

Good they have a series of races and why not just use your rankings from your races and just ignore what else is going on.

Just here's our T100 ranking based on our races then it would really.

No one would really care.

I think one of the things that the T100 ranking, PTO ranking, why it still has a bit of relevance is because they are actually using it to decide who gets into these T100 races because now they don't have the contracts anymore.

So I guess before each forthcoming T100 race, the top eight athletes in the ranking don't know when the cutoff is, don't know any of that will get like an automatic invite to that race.

And so now it's turned obviously from this generalized ranking of long course athletes to a feeder system or an entry system to the T100 ecosystem.

So I guess if people want to pursue that then they're going to have to do more races or whatever to try and get to the T100 or the more they do T100 races then obviously the more likely they're going to be getting future invites.

Yeah, I just, it's just funny.

It's just you had more experience with Ironman.

How did the pro fields get restricted?

Oceanside is pretty famous for having a really big pro field.

Is it just all comers or did they restrict it based on anything?

Like all of a sudden Ironman had, especially in the men's side races that were filling up 80 plus guys, they had Oceanside, I think last two years like it was full and people were getting turned away and so they've had to figure out a way to do that.

But for Ironman, it's just first come, first serve.

I mean famously Alistair Brownlee, I Think tried to sign up for Ironman Texas after it was full and he was denied a start.

So just like that was interesting in itself.

I think they probably would need to find some sort of ranking system to ensure marquee athletes, so to speak, would get on the start line.

Like they don't have that.

I think they don't even have that now unless they reserve a few spots just in case.

We're not pretty to that info but it's something that I would do if I was them for sure.

But it was the wild west that way versus the PTO now where they're using their rankings to get people into races.

But I don't even know.

Has the T100 said that they're still only having 20 athletes on every start line?

Have they said I listen.

You're asking the wrong person.

Pay enough attention.

But I. I do.

To the initial question of does anybody care about these rankings?

I don't think so.

I do.

You?

The only reason I pay attention to them and that they're interesting was because there was money on the line.

Like the money aspect is always intriguing.

Oh.

If you follow that along.

Oh.

Hayden or whoever.

Especially with the women in the T100.

Who's going to win the 200k at the end of the year?

That was interesting.

That is interesting.

Yes.

That I agree.

That's the series points and the series leaders.

That to me, I 100% agree.

That's interesting.

And they've gotten rid of that now.

Right.

So it's still 100k for the series win.

Which, yeah, that's great.

I'll take it.

But it's funny because they originally brought in the 200k for the series when Iron man matched it and now the T100 is cut back.

So I'm almost kind of.

Oh, man.

Does that mean Iron man is going to cut back?

Because it's like the 200 is almost giving them air cover to do that.

I don't know.

I would.

It'd be interesting to see.

I don't think they will because I don't think they're hurting for cash too much.

So I think they would rather just keep it as it is and probably not grow it too much in terms of ironman with the 200k.

But yeah, it's funny now that to see that T100 has totally restructured and got rid of that buzzy 200k figure.

But I guess do you pay attention to the pro series rankings or any.

It's not something I look up on a weekly basis.

It's not something that I seek out.

But when they post about it or when I hear an athlete talking about it.

And certainly as the season is coming towards the latter half, I definitely look and pay attention to how things are going to shake out.

I'm more interested in the winners of individual races though.

Like I like, to me, the winner of the pro series is a third winner.

Right.

You have the winner of the world championship for Ironman, you have the winner of the 70.3 World Championship and then you have this winner of the pro series.

And yeah, I don't view them equally by any stretch, but I view them as three different winners of three different competitions.

Yeah, for sure.

It's funny with Ironman doing that.

Like you talk about, you put the single day races ahead of the series because the series is supposed to create like what they call that season long narrative.

But at the end of the day, most people only really care about Kona or the world Championships.

Like at the end of the day, that's what you really pay attention to.

And yeah, it's just funny because T100 made Iron man force their hand a little bit to do this so they would keep talent.

And now it's clear, I think that Iron Man's gonna have no problem having the talent.

So yeah, it's just kind of like.

It's interesting.

Yeah.

Where do you go from there?

But one thing, one question I raised with just thinking about all this was obviously with the PTO rankings like changing and everything changing from the original vision.

Do you think the PTO itself was a failure?

That's not really for me to answer.

I think that's for the athletes to answer.

The PTO was created for the athletes.

They were supposed to be in charge.

They were supposed to be driving the ship.

I think that they were, I don't want to say misled, but I think that they were hoodwinked.

I don't know.

I mean they.

They, well never put in me.

Right.

So it's not like the athletes invested a bunch of money and then they got the rug pulled.

Whoever invested that money, like Michael Moritz and all the people who came on initially, they're still maybe gonna see some roi.

I don't know.

We're gonna find out.

But I guess in some ways it did fail because it didn't unify the professional ranks.

It didn't bring everyone together under this banner like a.

Because it originally was the PTU Professional Triathlon Union, which like, look it.

Did it succeed in forcing Iron man to increase the amount of money they Pay out.

Did it succeed in giving the athletes access more money, pro series?

Yeah, so in that sense it did succeed.

And in a way, the athletes played the T100 because they ended up playing for.

They got the T100 to cough out these contracts that they didn't have to really do anything special for.

The contracts went away, but the T100 still pays them reasonable amount of money for participating in their races.

So in a way, the player, the players, in a way, the athletes did get a lot out of this, but they didn't get the organization that they thought they were going to get.

They didn't get the support I think that they thought they were going to get in terms of the kind of series they thought they were going to get.

But again, I don't know if that's really important to them because at the end of the day, triathletes don't make a buttload of money.

And this has helped at least those at the top.

I don't know how much it's helped the average triathlete because you still see stories about back of the pack pros.

They don't make anything.

Yeah, but that's a whole different dynamic with the way triathlon does pro racing or at least Ironman does pro racing.

It's not really professional in that sense.

It's like with.

Yeah, it's still you just get paid to win.

You really don't get paid to participate.

No.

I'm wondering if at the very beginning, if the leadership, like maybe just it was a fault of the leadership or a fault of even.

Because really if you had, let's say at the beginning of the pto, if you had, let's say like the six or to ten marquee athletes, if you had, let's say you had Lionel yawn at the time, I guess since Charles, Daniela riff and have like those types of athletes.

Like what if the PTO paid them not to race?

And then not having their presence at these races like created more pressure on I guess, Iron man or whoever to do better by pros.

That's a scenario I envision where maybe they could have had more leverage, but they basically just lash out on people.

It didn't matter what they were doing.

They just wanted them pay these guys more.

But it just didn't make sense.

Yeah, but that's also assuming that these people would not race if you paid them enough.

They won't race, I guess.

But I mean guys trying to do better for all triathletes and they're getting paid.

I don't know.

I think maybe I. I should talk to May.

Should get one of them on the horn and put that hypothetical to them, see if I would have swayed them, because.

Yeah, you like, from what I gather and from my observations, like, definitely having someone like a Lionel say, I'm not racing until Iron man does xyz, like that could.

I think that could move the needle personally.

Especially if there's like, a bunch of them, like a Yan, Lionel, Lucy Charles.

But then you get into some labor law issues.

Oh, right.

Because then there's, I think, are they like, contractors anyways?

Like, they're not like, played employees.

Fireman.

But then that is sounds so suspiciously like collusion and trying to alter the work.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I don't want to.

I don't want to get out of my lane too far, but it does sound a little bit.

Anyways.

Okay, let's move to our second topic, which is still in the realm of T100 PTO, and that is the canceled indoor event from just a couple of short weeks ago.

We learned about this kind of at the last minute.

This was a big event that has taken place for several years.

It's a marquee indoor event that takes place in the uk, Right?

It's in France.

In France.

Okay.

Yeah.

And this is, like, a huge deal.

This is.

And the fact that it was canceled was quite a huge deal.

And I.

Not a great look for T100 yet again.

So what's.

What are you hearing about this?

So this race last year, and they've been doing it for a few years, like, these indoor races.

This was one of the first races.

I don't know if it was the first one of the first races where the T100, like, produced a world triathlon event.

So it was like a T1.

Like, that was the name of it.

T1, right?

T1.

Yeah.

Short format.

They were doing laps, I think.

Yeah.

Velodrome.

Yep.

Yep.

Made for.

Very much made for tv.

I mean, it was really.

They knocked it out of the park.

Like, I remember watching highlights.

I actually think I might have watched the race itself because the time zone was good.

And I thought, wow.

Like, they had big fireworks and sprinklers or whatever.

Like, for the sparkler.

Yeah.

They figured out a way to make triathlon very watchable.

And he was super entertaining.

Some good drama because it was just people bunched up and battling.

And I was like, man, this is it.

This is like, going to be part of the model or whatever going forward and the rug is pulled on.

I thought it was a great event.

All of a sudden they're canceling it.

And we talked about this a little bit before coming on.

To me, it doesn't make sense because this event, like the T100, they produce it in terms of the television and that kind of side, but then vents on like the team on the ground who produced it.

Like the actual company or group or whatever, they're based in France.

They have a lot of experience with it.

So it's not like they were the ones who were probably like, oh, we can't execute this because clearly they did.

It's clearly a situation where the T100 didn't want to pay for it.

Maybe World Triathlon wasn't willing to invest in it.

Someone wasn't going to put money up.

And so I think that's why the plug got pulled.

Unfortunately, that's my take.

I don't know if that makes it any better.

If they had this huge cash infusion, they have this opportunity to really have the spotlight to themselves.

Nothing else going on.

The timing is good.

Market T100 up the wazoo.

Show how you can put on this incredibly popular, very television friendly event.

The whole thing about triathlon, like, yeah.

Yeah, that was the spectacle.

And the whole thing about T100 is trying to make triathlon a television marketable kind of product.

And this is exactly that.

And somebody decided, yeah, no, we're not going to do that.

I'm just like astonished.

When are you astonished that they postponed something?

I'm not astonished that they did it.

I'm astonished that they would think that this was a good decision because it's just one after the other with these head scratchers.

I just don't get it.

I feel like I'm.

You're the T100, I guess, maybe not super fan.

I feel like I'm the T100 backer on this podcast.

I'm team T100, so to speak.

This is very much an unforced error by them.

They have a lot of momentum, I thought, coming into this season, this year.

So it's a tough start to the year.

Take an owl at the beginning of the year, unfortunately.

And this is supposed to be combined with World Triathlon as well.

This was a World cup event.

It wasn't like the Hayden Wilds of the world were going to show up to this or.

No, it's short course, Charles.

It's just short course.

Purely.

Yeah.

So it's like World Triathlete should own a little bit more of this.

Anyways, it says it's postponed, but we all know in Ti Hunter World what postponed means.

You know, language.

Yeah.

I just think it's unfortunate because anytime triathlon loses out on a marquee event like this, we all lose because it's just an opportunity to make the sport more visible, an opportunity to encourage more people to get into the sport.

And that is a loss.

And so that's why I'm just a little bit sad.

But hey, I'm glad you, you, you see the light on this one.

I'm trying not biased here.

I'm trying to, I'm trying to be objective.

Is gonna, it's gonna be objective and yeah, team hire, they gonna take an L on this kind of raises for me another thing that I saw with Super Try.

So the other short course.

Yeah, I heard much about them recently.

They've been putting out some press releases and stuff like, man, one of the ones.

And maybe I read this wrong, but with Super Tri, one of the press releases said that they are bringing like this biggest single day prize payout for triathlon.

And maybe I read that wrong because that just doesn't compete in so many ways.

They actually give out quite a bit of money for the series.

So I'm like, maybe they're just compressing it all into one race to have that thing.

So I've been curious to follow that.

They also have a bit of a series this year with a bunch of the newer races that they have.

So they bought one of the biggest races in the uk, The Blenheim Castle or Blenheim Palace Triathlon.

That's part of their series this year, their pro series.

The race in New Jersey, the New Jersey Triathlon, I think that's part of it as well.

So they've, they're making moves like they're making things happen.

They're really trying to claim like the short course, maybe like newer athlete entryway into the sport, like that lane a little bit, which.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know how that's going to play out.

But they're trying to claim that lane, which I think is an interesting play because obviously long course is taken.

Yeah, their races are great produced and.

Really Toronto, Chicago, Louisiana.

I don't know.

Well, don't sleep on sleeper trotters here.

No, absolutely not.

Especially when there's a gap in well produced marquee events.

Exactly.

All right.

All right, let's move to our third and final topic for the program today, and that is It's January, it's dark.

We're recording this at 6:45 and it is pitch black, at least where I live.

And it is that time of year where maybe the motivation is hard to find.

But you might be thinking to yourself, what can I do to make myself a better athlete for the upcoming season?

Because we all have things that we should probably be working on in order to turn a, maybe a mediocre season into a stellar season.

So we can't turn back the clock and get younger.

What can we do?

We can.

I was trying to think of something clever there, but no, we can do lots of foundational things this time of year.

Yeah.

Just things, kind of fixes or things that will set you up, like you said, for a stellar season.

And so obviously we talked about this, I think, on one of the last couple podcasts.

But like strength.

So really dialing in a strength routine.

I'm just such a believer in just like, obviously the KISS principle.

We all familiar with that.

Like, anything to lower the friction.

Maybe you don't have to drive to a gym to go do strength.

Like whatever you can do to make it as frictionless, as easy as possible.

Just body weight stuff.

Like, just start there.

Because doing something like that two to three times a week is going to be infinitely better than doing nothing.

Am I correct?

Yeah.

It's the first thing that people scratch from their schedules for whatever reason.

It doesn't take a huge amount of effort and it certainly doesn't take much time.

But in the time.

Poor athlete, I find it's the thing that gets cut immediately.

And it's funny because like I said, it's only about a half an hour.

But if you can keep it simple like you said, and just make it a habit now, twice, three times a week now, when it's a little bit easier because.

And like you said, if you do it at home, it's so much easier.

Then make it part of your routine and then it'll stick and it'll stick through into the spring and then you don't have to be doing it two, three times a week anymore, but you'll be used to it.

Yeah, I agree.

I feel like.

Yeah, I'm on that bandwagon too.

Right now.

I've got a little it band issue with my.

With the cycling.

I think I need a bike fit on my gravel bike.

I keep trying to push through and pretend that it's going to be fine and it's not.

So I'm definitely doing these physio exercises, strengthening the glute and stretches and stuff.

And you just mentioned two things that are on my list and one of them is attacking injuries.

So if you have any lingering injuries that are hanging on from last year.

So, like, I'm dealing with the shoulder thing.

I have this ankle thing that's bothering me.

I'm going to see physicians to get the proper diagnosis and the proper treatment.

I'm seeing pts to try and get some strengthening exercises and some things that will help me so that as I move into the spring, I'm able to try and get over these injuries as best I can and be set to actually move into the next season.

Not necessarily injury free, but at least better set up to.

To adapt to the injuries that I have because I wasn't able to do that last year.

And then the second thing is bike fit.

If you haven't had a bike fit or if you're due for a bike fit or if you have a new bike, if you're lucky enough or if you have changed, maybe you've been on your bike for a little while but now you've lost some weight or maybe you've put on some weight of muscle or who knows what else, or maybe you've.

Maybe you've just become more comfortable in the aero position and you can adapt with a better fit.

So, yeah, getting a bike fit at this time of year is a fantastic idea.

It's not super expensive and it can be super valuable.

Can get you a lot of time.

It's like when you go from, maybe you should also do this like a fresh, like a bad pair of shoes or like an old pair of shoes to like a fresh pair of shoes.

Yes.

Oh, my gosh.

Like, how did I run in these for?

Right.

Yeah.

That happens with a bike fit as well.

Like you, once you come out of the bike fit, you feel so much, maybe more relaxed or comfortable.

Whatever you're like, how did I just do whatever I was doing before for so long?

That's a great feeling and that's a great way to start off a year and get you fired up to get on the bike.

I don't know.

Yep.

Yep.

Little motivation that way.

Yep.

Another thing I have on my list is I think about things like the way to go faster on the bike is to be more aerodynamic and push more power.

So getting fit.

Maybe I don't like telling people to spend money, but maybe you need an aero helmet if you don't have one.

Something like that's a cheap thing.

So those are the.

And then working on your power.

So really Working on high intensity intervals at this time of year can really help with your power for the run.

Being more biomechanically efficient and also just building your base at this time of year can really help.

And then for the swim is all about propulsion.

And minimize increasing propulsion, minimizing drag.

It's hard to increase propulsion without really having a complete redo of your technique.

But this is a great time of year to really work on your position in the water.

Get those hips up, get those legs up, stop with the sinking legs.

And if you could fix your position at this time of year, that can gain you significant amounts of time when you start doing your hard sets and you start swimming for distance and endurance later.

Exactly.

If you do those strength exercises, your core gets stronger.

Right.

Up higher for longer.

So they all intertwined a little bit.

Yeah.

I think one of the things that I'm going to be working on through this winter is really like a. I don't know, like a true zone too.

So really like feeling that aerobic effort.

Like, I'm going out for runs right now.

I'm not looking at pace at all, but really just feeling okay.

What does it feel like to actually run?

Yeah, like an aerobic effort, a zone two effort.

And I think I've got that feeling.

And then as time goes on, I focus more on whatever I'm going to be focusing on.

I'll dial in pace a little bit, but I think this is the time of year just to not get too wrapped up in that and just, I don't know, just find that true zone two or that feeling of zone two versus whatever the watch is telling you or your heart rate's telling you.

Because if I looked at what my watch was telling me, I'd be like freaking out based on what I used to do.

So I don't know, I'm enjoying that aspect.

Just getting back to the feeling of a zone 2 aerobic run.

There is nothing wrong with that.

And you know what?

It's really helpful in building that endurance base without risking injury.

And I have so many athletes who just cannot do it.

They just, oh, I tell them to go for a nice, easy comfort run.

I don't even say zone two.

I just say, make it easy, make it comfortable.

And then they come back and they're like, they're running clearly.

Zone three, zone four.

And I'm like, yeah, not really what I had in mind.

Yeah, triathletes famously relax famously.

Not neurotic.

Yeah, that's a hard thing to learn.

But I tell you, once you Learn, you can embrace it.

And it really does pay off in the long run.

It's good.

I got one more thing.

You got anything else?

I got one more.

No, go for it.

The last one.

That is not on my mind for things to fix on or focus on this time of year, kind of decide like what goals you want this year or what success will look like for you at the end of the year.

And that doesn't have to mean like racing success.

That can be like obviously those process things.

And so for me, I think at the end of the day, what success will look like this year is going to be like really just being consistent with this new routine.

Like, but getting in training within this new routine.

So trying to like, yeah, go to the gym three times a week, trying to swim a couple times a week, run every other day, get a good bike in on the weekend.

I think that's where I'm trending.

I think success, if I can pull off consistent weeks, months, quarters or whatever, if that, I'll look back at the end of there and be like, good job, pat on my back.

Hey, whatever is giving you joy, happiness and contentment in doing your training and racing in the sport, I think that is a positive.

So, yeah, I think that's a great way to finish this segment and to finish this program.

So another solid episode in the bank there, Matt.

Good job.

Yeah, I want to more like newsy things coming up because we're in a kind of quiet time of the year, right?

For this is the sort of the lull, the slow period.

We want to thank all of you for being here with us and we want to thank you for being patient with us as we missed last week's episode because of some family stuff.

We are so glad that you choose to come back and listen to us when we are here and we look forward to bringing you another episode next week if you enjoy what you hear.

We hope that you will leave us a rating and a review wherever you download the content.

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If you're not already a member, please do search for Talk Tempo Talks on that platform.

Answers the very easy questions.

We will gain you admittance to the private group.

We would love to hear your questions for future episodes and of course to see your comments, what your thoughts are about the PTO rankings, the T100 and all the other things that we discuss week in and week out.

Matt, thank you so much for being here.

It's always great to catch up and chat.

I Look forward to our next episode in a week's time.

Yes, looking forward to it.

Already fired up for it and thanks for listening again.

Thanks for being here.

Tempo Talks is a production of the Triathlon Performance Hub and is produced and edited by the Tridock Jeff Sand.

The music heard at the beginning and end of the program is Rock by Henry Greger and is used under a Creative Commons license.

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