After an 11-year break from triathlon, I rejoined our sport in 2019 and have been a committed short-course triathlete ever since. For the past several years, I’ve been on pretty much the same training program, and it has served me very well, having worked my way up the ranks and having achieved national championship titles and World Championship podiums. 2024 was, by most accounts, another successful year for me, yet, I wasn’t fully satisfied, particularly with my swimming and biking. And I had a very discouraging negative trajectory as the race distances got longer. Here’s a painful example. As we all know, the Olympic event is almost exactly twice as long as the Sprint, yet, at USAT Nationals in Atlantic City, the time gap between myself and the winner was 4x slower than in the Sprint (and I was 4^th and 11^th, respectively). That is math that just doesn’t compute!

The natural tendency of most triathletes, when they aren’t progressing as expected, is to simply do what they’ve been doing more and harder. So, we increase our volume or intensity in the hope that these greater efforts will produce the gains we are looking for both in terms of performance data and results.

I certainly thought about doing just that, but it didn’t feel quite right. I’m a big believer in the well-known Law of Insanity (attributed inaccurately to Albert Einstein): “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Given what I do for a living, I didn’t want to act insanely, so I decided to do something different, in fact, a bunch of things different.

Solo vs. Group Training

I’ve always been a guy who likes to train alone (I’m an introvert). Throughout my endurance-sport career, I’ve never trained with anyone else (except for the occasional and short-lived run or bike buddy). I’ve always just liked doing my own thing and have found I can push myself hard without external motivators. That shift from solo to group training is probably my biggest change in my training, but far from the only change. More on that shortly.

Lesson learned: When I’m training with others, I work that much harder.

Swimming

Let me describe some of the swimming challenges I’ve faced and how I have tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to overcome them. I didn’t grow up swimming; I suffer from what Lionel Sanders calls Adult-onset Swimming. Prior to 2002, I was in the non-drowning category; I didn’t side breathe or do my first lap in a pool till my early 40s when I decided to transition from marathon running to triathlons. I only took one swim lesson as I embarked on an eight-year journey of Ironmans and 70.3s. To be honest, I look back on my swimming and can’t believe that I didn’t give any real thought to getting better technically.

Since 2021, I have spent considerable time taking periodic swim lessons, watching YouTube swim videos, and spending countless hours working on swim technique that I thought would for sure make me faster. But I’ve been stuck at around 1:40/100y.

With the encouragement of my new-ish coach, Duane Franks (he coached me through Ironman days too), I recently joined a master’s swim group, North Bay Aquatics (NBA) and, after just a few weeks, my swimming has been transformed. The four NBA coaches who have coached me are remarkable; I have seen significant improvement in my body position, catch and pull, and especially in my strokes per length, dropping from 23 to 17. I’ve also increased my swim workouts from two to four each week, and I’m averaging around 3000 yards per workout, so I’m getting stronger. NBA also has a great community and I’m enjoying myself far more than when I swam alone, which helps with my motivation. Lastly, for the first time in several years, I actually have hope that I can become a faster swimmer.

Lesson learned: Getting constant feedback from expert coaches, focusing on technique, and committing to going slow to go fast is essential for swimming improvement.

Bike

My biking has been a source of immense frustration for me the last few years, particularly at the Olympic distance. I lose ground on the bike and must play catch-up on the run (my strength), but I run out of real estate at the finish line. Plus, my weakness on the bike cost me majorly in the Draft-legal Sprint at Worlds in October. I simply didn’t have the legs to “grab a wheel” and draft anyone, rode almost the entire course alone, lost 3 ½ minutes to the fast guys, burned too many matches in the process, and had no legs for the run.

My recent blood-lactate testing revealed that I have a good “engine” (meaning cardiovascular system) for my age, with a VO₂Max of more than 52, but a so-so power as measured by w/kg (3.3). But that fitness wasn’t translating into my ability to push more power.

Then Tim Fleming, the exercise physiologist who did the testing, and Duane had a shared epiphany. Three clues led to this breakthrough. First, when I want to go faster on my bike, I drop into a harder gear and mash rather than increase my cadence and spin (if you know what my legs look like, I don’t have the muscles to mash!). Second, even when I was working really hard, my heart rate never got very high. Third, I’m actually able to be somewhat competitive on the bike in the Super-sprint and Mixed-relay events, but I get less competitive in the Sprint, and am largely uncompetitive in the Olympic. Basically, I was using my leg muscles, rather than my engine, to try to go faster. And as the event distance gets longer, I “cook” myself and just can’t maintain a competitive pace after a while.

So, for the next three months, Tim and Duane’s solution is for me to focus entirely on high-cadence riding, which activates my engine, both on my indoor trainer and outside, and to do a lot of climbing on rides of no more than 40 miles. I’ve also begun riding with other guys who are stronger than I am, so I’m learning to push my self-perceived limits. I’m even thinking about joining a weekend group ride in my area.

Lesson learned: Expert coaches and performance data are invaluable.

Strength

I’ve been lifting weights my entire life, so I’m familiar with the benefits of strength training, and I’m relatively strong for my weight (under 140 lbs.). But, compared to my primary competitors in my age group, I am by far the lightest and least strong of the group. Part of that is just genetics (and I blame my parents for that!), but Duane believes that if I can put on 3-5 lbs. during the 2025 prep period (I actually already added 3 lbs. from 2021-2023), that will translate into improved power and endurance on my bike.

To that end, for the next three months, I will be on a 3x/weekly heavy weightlifting program that is balanced (i.e., legs, core, upper body), but focuses on my lower body with leg press, squats, and deadlifts. Also, I’ve just started taking creatine, a supplement that has good research demonstrating that it bolsters muscle development and strength.

Lesson learned: Addressing the root causes of my weaknesses with expert advice offers the best shot at overcoming those weaknesses.

Mobility

Mobility is the last aspect of my physical conditioning that I am adding to my training regimen. If you didn’t know, the word flexibility is out and the word mobility is in. I’ve always been relatively flexible, oops, sorry, mobile for a male endurance athlete, but I never did much stretching. I didn’t enjoy it and, for the periods when I did stretch, I never saw any noticeable results.

That is changing moving forward. The end of my bike, run, and strength workouts is devoted to about 15 minutes of mobility exercises. Duane has convinced me that it will improve my strength and speed in all three events of triathlon because of an increased range of motion. He also said that it would reduce my risk of injury (which I already knew to be true in theory). The deal maker though was realizing that stretching would help me stay healthy and active longer as I age.

Lesson learned: Do things in your training that you don’t necessarily enjoy, but that will pay off in training and on race day.

Wrap-up

Will any of these changes produce the results I wish for? I don’t know, but we’ll find out. At the same time, another side benefit of making all these changes is that I feel more hopeful than ever that I can close the gap between myself and the guys ahead of me. And that fuels me with optimism, motivation, and excitement. Regardless of the outcome of my renewed efforts, that is a great way to go through life!