Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
#547 Run Off the Bike: Why It Feels Hard and Common Mistakes
1 Plays3 seconds ago
Running well off the bike is one of the biggest performance separators in triathlon—and one of the most misunderstood. In this episode, Coaches Rich Soares and Lauren Brown break down exactly why the run feels so hard after the bike, from neuromuscular fatigue to fueling mistakes and pacing errors. You’ll learn the most common reasons athletes blow up, how to avoid them, and the key strategies to help you run strong, efficient, and in control on race day. If you want to stop surviving the run and start racing it, this episode gives you the roadmap.
Vespa Power Endurance helps you tap into steady, clean energy so you can stay strong, focused, and in the zone longer. Unlike traditional fuels, Vespa works as a metabolic catalyst—helping your body use more fat and preserve glycogen for when it matters most.
Home of Vespa Power Products | Optimizing Your Fat Metabolism
Use discount code: G2GVespa15
Grit2Greatness Links & Community
🌐 Website: Grit2Greatness Endurance Coaching
👍 Facebook: @grit2greatnessendurance
📸 Instagram: @grit2greatness_endurance
⭐ Ambassador Program:
Apply Here
👥 Become a Team Member:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ID3eHh_9lieVVsjVaMddXlKZd64lySPZTsGW3EIyJNE/edit
🎧 Subscribe to Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Episode 547
00:00:20
Rich
Welcome to episode 547 of the Grit to Greatness Endurance podcast. We're your hosts, coaches Rich Soares and Lauren Brown, and we are on a mission to help endurance athletes train smarter, race stronger, and build the grit It takes to achieve
Focus on Running Off the Bike
00:00:34
Rich
greatness. This week's episode is all about one of the biggest performance separators in triathlon that is running off the bike, taking inspiration from the podcast last week with our running coach friend, Bobby McGee.
00:00:48
Rich
We felt like this was the perfect time to dial in how to transition from bike to run with strength, efficiency, and confidence. We're going to break down why so many triathletes struggle in this phase. Why does it feel so hard? and give you some actionable strategies to help you run your best potential instead of surviving to the finish line.
00:01:10
Rich
Hey, Coach Lauren, are you ready to do this?
Celebrating Athletes and Podcast Authenticity
00:01:14
Lauren Brown
I am absolutely ready to do this. I love talking about running off the bike because I think it's something that we all can use some help with and some reminders on. So I'm excited. Before we get into it I'd love to go over some shout outs coming up for the weekend.
00:01:31
Lauren Brown
All right. We've got, and I honestly, I love this time of year because how fun is it that it's like every single week we get to like cheer on our athletes and then celebrate them because we have so many people racing all the
00:01:46
Rich
Can't make this up. That's awesome.
00:01:47
Lauren Brown
I know.
00:01:48
Rich
Like our audience has got to love the just authenticity of this podcast.
00:01:54
Lauren Brown
I live in a city guys. There's like always sound around. Yeah.
00:01:56
Rich
That's all good. That's all good.
00:01:58
Lauren Brown
Yeah. Awesome.
00:02:00
Rich
i agree. This is, it is really fun. I mean, I was showing you to one of our new athletes, you know, she was like, i need to find it. She's trying to find it. She's ready to have sign up for a race.
00:02:11
Rich
So we're shopping for races and I'm pulling up, you know, running in the USA and I'm showing her there's, there's one or two races every weekend here in, in Boulder and and all that.
00:02:18
Lauren Brown
yeah
00:02:21
Rich
And, and, and for us to have athletes every week, weekend and week out that are racing and give them shout outs.
00:02:26
Lauren Brown
It's so cool.
00:02:28
Rich
It's blast.
00:02:28
Lauren Brown
Yep.
00:02:28
Rich
Yeah.
00:02:28
Lauren Brown
So shouting out our athletes that are racing this week, we've got Caroline Henry doing Lake to Lake in Loveland, Colorado.
Merchandise Highlights
00:02:37
Lauren Brown
We've got Paul Hunziker doing Black Diamond Triathlon in, and where is that?
00:02:44
Rich
Enumclaw, Washington. I know. who knew?
00:02:47
Lauren Brown
Thank you. And then Kevin Bauer and coach Rich, you guys are both doing Boulder sunrise in obviously Boulder, Colorado. So we are super excited to track our athletes and see what they make happen on the course. And of course you as well, coach.
00:03:06
Rich
Yeah. Well, thank you. i tell you what, this is my favorite part of the podcast. Sometimes just to see the names, see what they've been working for and here we get to celebrate them. You know, can I actually make another little announcement here?
00:03:17
Rich
Just a little teaser.
00:03:17
Lauren Brown
Absolutely.
00:03:19
Rich
I'm drinking out of my new grit to greatness mug. It's got this really cool, like white and green color and it has green on the inside too, except, you know, there's also coffee, so I can't show you too much, but also has our values.
00:03:34
Rich
What GRIT stands for for us. Isn't that cool?
00:03:37
Lauren Brown
I love it.
00:03:38
Rich
These are...
00:03:38
Lauren Brown
Yep. Gratitude, resilience, impact, transformation.
00:03:42
Rich
Yeah, well, yeah. Thank you for the listening audience. And yeah, these are... We'll have a link in the show notes also. If anybody wants to go to our store, you can go to our website. We've got a storefront on the website. Check it out.
00:03:55
Rich
We've got got the... Oh, man. We've got all sorts of goodies. We've got the all the tees, all sorts of colors and tees, including tie-dye.
00:04:03
Lauren Brown
Hold on.
00:04:03
Rich
They... are
00:04:04
Lauren Brown
Do we got some trucker hats too yet? Or are they up there yet?
00:04:08
Rich
The trucker. Hey, hey,
00:04:10
Lauren Brown
Oh yeah. vote Yeah.
00:04:11
Rich
Trucker hat. Yo, yo, yo, I guess.
00:04:14
Lauren Brown
Mine's in the mail.
00:04:14
Rich
true Yours is in the mail.
00:04:17
Lauren Brown
Yep.
00:04:17
Rich
Yeah, you can get yours too. These are awesome. They have, what I really love about this, we were showing them off at our so our Coach Mastermind group last night, April and I were. We showed that they have the Get Gritty slogan on the back. This is all, this isn't like printed. This is embroidered.
00:04:35
Lauren Brown
Yep.
00:04:35
Rich
an embroidered logo, embroidered name, and it also has the same values on the bill so that when you're running, this is you running, you can see the values as you're running.
00:04:49
Rich
That's of cool, right?
00:04:49
Lauren Brown
Yep. Love it. So good.
00:04:52
Rich
Right there. Reminded me, be gritty.
00:04:56
Lauren Brown
Yep. It's how we roll.
00:04:58
Rich
All right. Totally. This is so much fun. All right. So listen, we we inspired by the running segment last time, last week with Coach Bobby McGee, getting ready to run off the bike myself this weekend.
Challenges of Running Off the Bike in Triathlons
00:05:12
Rich
We thought a great question to discuss here is first, Coach Lauren, tell us, give us a first, give us one of the reasons that why running off the bike feels so dang hard.
00:05:24
Lauren Brown
So one reason is due to neuromuscular fatigue. Re-learning how to run. it It literally feels like that. So for our friends out there who have not had a lot of experience running off the bike,
00:05:39
Lauren Brown
I always compare it to feeling like a baby deer, right? When you like you see a baby deer walk and they're like, oh my God, what do I do with these things, right? That's kind of the the feeling. So when you're cycling, you're using a very specific motor pattern, right? You're primarily pushing down in a circular motion with relatively fixed hip positioning. So the moment you start running, your body has to switch to a completely different movement pattern. involving impact, elastic rebound and coordinated stride timing.
00:06:12
Lauren Brown
Very different from what you're experiencing on the bike. And that sudden change creates a disconnect between what your brain is telling your legs to do and how they're responding. So this is why your legs can feel heavy, awkward like a baby deer or uncoordinated in the first mile. So it's not just fatigue. It's literally this neuromuscular reset that has to catch up. And that's why sometimes I say it's like, you know, that first mile you're like, I don't know if, I don't know if I'm going to get it together. And then, and then you do.
00:06:49
Rich
I think that is like a really well described, you know, sensation that you have as a runner. And I, and you know, I love the baby deer analogy. I think that's pretty good for me. It's like, it's that reset, that neuromuscular reset. It's like, almost like when you first get out of bed in the morning, you first put your feet down, your feet haven't been on like, it's like all of a sudden I'm rebalancing,
00:07:14
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:07:14
Rich
you know?
00:07:15
Lauren Brown
yeah
00:07:16
Rich
And I think that kind of goes for the next reason that it feels so dang hard, which is the blood flow redistribution.
00:07:22
Lauren Brown
Yep.
00:07:22
Rich
You know, on the bike, you know, you've been you've been utilizing your blood flow just to support that stable body position, the recruitment of the muscles that are turning the pedals around.
00:07:34
Rich
But when you transition into running, and your body's got to quickly redirect all that blood flow to support the impact-based movement and additional muscle recruitment.
00:07:44
Rich
around the calves and the hamstrings and the foot and the and stabilizing muscles and tendons, this transition doesn't happen like right away. Right. I mean, like, it's like, Oh, wait a minute.
00:07:55
Rich
You know, I mean, think about like how long it takes for blood. Think about how long it would take for blood being pushed by pressure from the heart to be pushed through your, your,
00:08:10
Rich
cardiovascular system to to the working metal muscles back to the heart to get re-oxygenated to go back someplace else.
00:08:12
Lauren Brown
Right.
00:08:19
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:08:20
Rich
It takes a little bit of time for the body to do that.
00:08:23
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:08:23
Rich
So it's not immediate, which means like the first time you're, when you first start running, gonna be operating slightly behind in an oxygen delivery debt and like, and the waste removal.
00:08:34
Rich
So breathing, oh, we'll talk about more about that later. But anyway, that constitutes the feeling of, of the effort feeling disproportionately high compared to your pace.
00:08:37
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:08:44
Lauren Brown
Yeah, and it makes me think of when if you're doing strength training and you're going from maybe holding like a plank position, right? And you're holding a forearm plank. You ever have that feeling where you get up too fast from a forearm plank and you're now in this, you know, you're in this prone position and you want to stand upright.
00:09:03
Lauren Brown
And all of a sudden you feel like, I think we'd go right back down. I feel like your body, even just that quick adaptation, even just from like a 30 second plank to standing up sometimes feels alarming and unsettling. And you might be going from like,
00:09:17
Lauren Brown
you know, an hour, two hours, four hours, five hours of a certain body position to also even just a different position. So, uh, something I kind of think about with that as well.
00:09:29
Rich
Yeah, that time, what you're saying about the time, like think about the difference. It feels like from a sprint to a like half Ironman, like how stiff or stiff you feel, you know?
00:09:38
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:09:38
Rich
You could see it even in Kona when the pros get off the bike in Kona. They're running off the bike, they're all stiff, you know?
00:09:44
Lauren Brown
Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot to, to adjust to. And that, that also leads into the next bullet of core fatigue and posture breakdown.
00:09:56
Lauren Brown
So cycling places a constant demand on your core to maintain position, right? Especially if you're riding an arrow at especially an arrow, right? So by the time you hit t two your core is already fatigued.
00:10:10
Lauren Brown
And this this can lead to poor posture when you start running. And if you're running with an inefficient posture, you're going to have an inefficient stride, right? It's going feel a lot harder to run off the bike because biomechanically, your body is not in the right alignment even. So instead of running tall with a slight forward lean,
00:10:34
Lauren Brown
Athletes might start to collapse at the hips. You're rounding at your shoulders. And sometimes even then to compensate, you start to overstride. So this is it's, of course it's wasting energy, but it it it just makes everything feel that much harder than it should at a given pace. So if you're like, you know, you're running and you might feel like you're pushing a seven, eight minute pace and,
00:11:02
Lauren Brown
Maybe it's a nine minute pace things your RPE, your rate of perceived exertion is not going to feel like it's lining up with what it should.
00:11:11
Rich
Yeah. Yeah. That, it, you know, just the body gets locked in, you know, and it really kind of, these really are sort of compounding, right? You start with neuromuscular fatigue, you get the blood flow redistribution, you know, redistribution. And, you know, because you've been in that position for so so long, you've got that sort of And you rely on your core so much, the posture just starts to break down.
00:11:35
Rich
Well, and if and if that isn't enough, the next thing to break down is sort of that mental transition, right?
00:11:35
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:11:43
Rich
you You've gone from being in an environment on a bike where you're actually, you know, you feel quite a bit in control, right? Your power number, you got all the control in the world over the power number. Nice steady effort, you know, no neuromuscular, very little neuromuscular impact.
00:11:59
Rich
But once you start running, there is no coasting. There is no easy spinning. There is, yeah, you know, you're, and guess what?
00:12:08
Lauren Brown
Mm-hmm.
00:12:09
Rich
Your feet are on the ground. You got to deal with it. So there's no hiding and, and every inefficiency is going to get exposed. Mentally, this can be a little bit overwhelming, right?
00:12:19
Rich
And you have to, and you've gone from manageable to barely holding it together very quickly. So athletes who aren't prepared for that mental shift and have, oh, okay, I've done this before.
00:12:30
Rich
I've i've experienced this, you know, every weekend, let's just say right Because that's what you should be doing, right? I mean, doing this on a regular basis will really, really help help you this with with this transition. So yeah, it also will help you recognize the signals your body's giving you and how to pace so you're not pushing too hard or mentally check out when things get too tough.
00:12:54
Lauren Brown
Yeah, I would say like there's definitely been times, especially when I first started racing where in that first mile, two miles, you're like,
00:13:06
Lauren Brown
I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this. And you start questioning like where you're at, your ability physically, athletically to manage what's going on. And a lot of times it's mind over muscle sometimes when you get to that point.
00:13:24
Lauren Brown
It's true to hear the sirens in the background like on point.
00:13:30
Rich
Totally on point. It's like, almost like we planned it. Like, like it's a, you know, music over or something like that.
00:13:34
Lauren Brown
Yeah, it's an emergency, you guys.
00:13:36
Rich
It's emergency.
00:13:36
Lauren Brown
Sometimes you gotta shut your mind off, let your body do what it needs to do. so Anyway, transitioning, let's talk a little bit about what are the most common reasons triathletes blow up, right? So we know physiologically what what might be going on, but let's kind of dissect this a little bit. And I'm going to have you kind of kick us off, Coach Rich, with the most common reasons that we see triathletes blowing up.
Common Struggles in Triathlon Runs
00:14:05
Rich
Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. So yeah, we just talked about how, why does it feel so hard? Well, now let's talk about some of the reasons that, you know, now you know, there's one thing about it feeling hard. There's another thing about like, did you do something earlier that made you blow up on the run?
00:14:19
Lauren Brown
Mm-hmm.
00:14:20
Rich
And over biking is item number one on my list because i am guilty as sin of this one. I can't help it. Right. I get on the bike and I'm like, I know my number.
00:14:30
Rich
I know what, and somebody passes me and I'm just like, I'm going to ride with them. I'm going to, you Not drafting, but you know you're like, I want to try to see if I can stay with them or whatever. And I love draft legal, right? Because it is like bike racing and I'm kind of like like bike racing.
00:14:47
Rich
Biggest mistake you can make. You've really, like we we talk about doing race rehearsals. If you're not doing the race rehearsal at the target power you want, you will not have a good a valid test, a valid rehearsal.
00:15:03
Lauren Brown
Mm-hmm.
00:15:03
Rich
So, and and don't go to the race trying to beat your race rehearsal power. you know
00:15:10
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:15:35
Rich
My coach. Coach Mark Allen always advises build into the bike. Start your easiest, yeah know your first third should be your easiest.
00:15:46
Rich
Your second third should be kind of around that kind of target. you know Maybe you're just under that target pace. And then that last third is you're building, you're slowly building into it instead of just instead of going the other way.
00:15:57
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:16:00
Lauren Brown
Yeah. I will be thinking about that first tip definitely. So I've got Lake Placid in three weeks and same same thing, Coach K, my coach Kurt Madden, when we're talking about it, it's like, you need to, for me with my bike split, it's like by mile, by not by mile, by hour four, you should feel like you still got something in the tank.
00:16:25
Lauren Brown
Like you can finish strong. Like don't be sitting at mile four feeling like, get me the heck off this bike. Because if you blow up too soon and you're feeling like that at four hours, you still got quite a way to go once you get off that bike.
00:16:39
Rich
That's right. That's right.
00:16:40
Lauren Brown
You still need to have them running legs, guys. And I think that's the thing is like, you know, if you over bike, especially depending the distance, right? If it's a half iron full distance, like it is, you've got, you still have a while to go. So if you over bike and you're cooked,
00:17:03
Lauren Brown
you're really like not in a good spot on the run. So I think it's, you know, it's always trying to hold it back, hold it back. And I love that like first, third, second, third, final third go.
00:17:18
Lauren Brown
So. All right, next up is poor fueling and hydration on the bike. This has been coming up a lot, actually, in my conversations with making sure that you are, if you want to have a strong run, you need to be ahead of the game on the bike because if you fall behind on the bike, you you might never catch up on the run. And I feel like actually, Coach Rich, when you and i talked about bonking,
00:17:46
Lauren Brown
And it was like had bonked on your, you had like 19 miles of the run that you were like not okay. And it's like, if you're not fueling well on the bike, not hydrating well on the bike,
00:18:01
Lauren Brown
you're going struggle on the run. So most run blow ups are actually caused by mistakes made on the bike. If you under fuel, if you miss time, your intake and listen, we've all been, but I've definitely done this. I think every single person listening to this, if you've raced, it resonates with you. If you fall behind on hydration, your body will compensate for a while, right? We carb load, we've, hydrated We've taken our electrolytes, but eventually it's going to run out available energy. It just is going to happen. So the run is where that deficit shows up. So you're you start to lose your pace.
00:18:37
Lauren Brown
It's really hard for you to maintain your effort. You might start experiencing gi distress, is stress. nobody wants to have on the run. Again, probably gonna happen at some point.
00:18:48
Lauren Brown
And even come down to having to walk. And while walking might be happening no matter what, it might be happening a lot more frequently than you want it to. So simply put, you're not just fueling on the bike, you're setting up the metabolic foundation for a successful run.
00:19:07
Rich
Yeah. And I'll tell you, you know think about that. This is all about the you know the off the bike run, like how to have a good run off the bike. So much depends on the fueling and pacing and the effort on the bike.
Strategies for Effective Triathlon Running
00:19:25
Rich
You just said it, coach coach Coach Learn. Everything on the run, most things have to do with what happened on the bike.
00:19:32
Rich
and And no exception here is you know spiking your effort, whether it's on hills or on the wind. And you know listen, there are very few courses that don't have both of those, right? Or at least one of those, right?
00:19:49
Rich
and And the hardest ones have both and heat, right? So there's there's a there's a thing that there's a thing around having a constant power and not having a whole lot of variability.
00:20:04
Rich
Think a variability index. If you're thinking about like, you're using like, you know training peaks, for example, that's the number you're looking at. What is that variability index in that like effort?
00:20:14
Lauren Brown
Mm-hmm.
00:20:16
Rich
Is it a big swing? Is it a big number? Or do you keep that power pretty tight? Set an alarm, keep the effort high, right? If you need to, you're going up a hill, going into the wind,
00:20:28
Rich
You're down, right? Keep your cadence where you need your keep your cadence probably a little higher to keep from getting muscle fatigue to save those muscles for the run later.
00:20:38
Rich
But make sure you're trying to keep a constant power. And you know one of the things you can also do is it relates to hills if you're using race a Right. Go into race X, go into the planner, go into the grades tab and you can create segments and you can see every segment, what the grade will be. And you can you know have a plan for your power go and cadence going into those segments.
00:21:05
Rich
And for goodness sake, ride to the target power in in race X because over biking that number won't set you up for success. that is That's supposed to be the number you're supposed to ride to to have the best run split.
00:21:21
Lauren Brown
Right. Super important. I love race X.
00:21:25
Rich
Me too.
00:21:26
Lauren Brown
It's like, it's, uh, it's your GPS. If you're not using it, use it.
00:21:32
Rich
That's right. That's right.
00:21:34
Lauren Brown
All right, moving on this This I'm super guilty of. This is gonna be like, this is one that I'm like, shame on you, Lauren, shame on you, Law, starting the run too fast.
00:21:47
Lauren Brown
I always say, I literally just said this today talking to someone where I was like, you cannot go out like a freaking five-year-old running a one-mile fun run. And that is always,
00:21:59
Lauren Brown
always how I go out. It's always, I'm like, I feel so good. I want to go fast. So adrenaline, adrenaline, excitement, and like the relief of finishing the bike. That's absolutely real, but this can all trick you into running faster than you absolutely should be running in that first mile or two. And it's like, I mean, honestly, you get off the bike and for sometimes, sometimes you get off the bike and you see your family there and you're like, woohoo, it And like, so you're just like going and and then you look at your, if you're clocking yourself, you're like, oh my God, I'm running. Like there are times where i look it i'm like,
00:22:36
Lauren Brown
Oh my God, I'm running like as if I'm literally running a 5K fresh, right? so So the problem here is that this early surge really feels easy, but it's metabolically super duper expensive.
00:22:50
Lauren Brown
So the early pacing mistake, it compounds over time and this can lead to a dramatic slowdown later in the run. And the the hard truth is that a lot of athletes don't realize that they've made this mistake until it's too late to recover.
00:23:10
Lauren Brown
And if you're playing that catch up game, that trying to resettle back into the pace that you should have settled into a mile ago, it it can be a really hard catch up game.
00:23:24
Rich
Yeah, for sure. And I'm guilty of this too. I did this in my first Iron Man. Like it came out of transition and the crowd's there you're on the beach and the music's playing and you're like, oh man, I'm super, you know, I'm Superman, let's go.
00:23:39
Rich
and you look down and you're like, wait a minute, that's going to be, that's going a problem.
00:23:42
Lauren Brown
Yeah. You know, you know, you sure sure as heck ain't holding onto that for another 26 miles. Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:48
Rich
Yeah, heck no. In fact, actually, you know, that, you know, think about, you know, the the holding back, right? You're like, you might be like, youre you're struggling with that decision to hold yourself back because all the time you're losing.
00:24:02
Rich
Think about how much time you're going to lose when you're walking later.
00:24:05
Lauren Brown
yeah yeah
00:24:07
Rich
The longer you can take to walk, especially in an Ironman, it's almost going to, it's almost inevitably going to happen. You're going to, you know, at some point walking on the run, but the longer you could put that off,
00:24:16
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:24:20
Rich
can be dictated a lot by the effort that you put in earlier on. So anyway, that's a big one. Lack of brick training is another one. like what we're talking about, like practicing this regularly, you know, it's not enough just to do occasional bike off the run workouts.
00:24:36
Rich
Get used to it so that it feels like, oh, you know, I'm i'm so used to this. It's almost like brushing your teeth every week. Without training your body to run at a goal pace and a goal cadence,
00:24:50
Rich
off the bike and with good form. Like that's the other thing, like really practice running with good form, get your posture, you know, good in that first 30 seconds, breathe really well for, you know, like deeply for 30 seconds as you are, you know, like really get it into your diaphragm.
00:25:10
Rich
Practice those things. you'll Those will be tools that will be invaluable on race day.
00:25:16
Lauren Brown
Yeah. that really goes right into the poor biomechanics that are going to happen under fatigue. Right? So it's like, We can all look at ourselves running fresh and be like, I got great form when i'm running. umm you know My posture is great. My stride looks good. But as the body tires, it's again, it's inevitable. Breakdowns are going to happen. You're going to overstride. You're going to drop your cadence. you might start to see excessive vertical movement, upper body tension. And these inefficiencies, they do increase energy cost right when your available energy is already starting to be limited.
00:25:55
Lauren Brown
So that's going to accelerate fatigue. It's going to contribute to that classic blow up feeling where just everything feels hard.
00:26:06
Rich
Yeah.
00:26:09
Rich
we've got heat heat management, right? Which is a bigger issue on the on the run.
00:26:11
Lauren Brown
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:26:13
Rich
Let's just face it. Cause you just have a bigger, you got a bigger calorie load, right? So you're by by virtue of burning more calories. I don' like i i don't know. i mean, it's just pretty straightforward. You got a bigger calorie calorie demand running than do biking.
00:26:30
Rich
That's going to raise your temperature in the same environment, probably a warmer environment than it was on the bike. Cause the, as the day gets, as the morning goes on or the afternoon goes on, whether you're running late morning or middle of the afternoon, going to be hotter.
00:26:45
Rich
So that's also going to amplify some of the mistakes that happened earlier around pacing and hydration and and nutrition. So this is sort of one of those bolt on, you know, you know, reasons that things go bad on the, on the run.
00:26:58
Rich
it's not, but But it also is you know related to what happened earlier on.
00:27:02
Lauren Brown
Yeah. And it goes back to your even hydration and electrolyte strategy on the bike, because if you're not managing the expectation of the heat on the run and the sweat, you're going to be losing on the bike, you're going to pay for it on the run.
00:27:18
Lauren Brown
So.
00:27:19
Rich
Right. And keeping an eye on the gauges. and when I say keeping an eye on the gauges, keep an eye on the relationship between your pace and your heart rate.
00:27:30
Rich
Right. know what Know what normal is and and know how to diagnose, okay, my heart rate is high. My rate of perceived exertion is this, you know, that means i might be dehydrated or, you know,
00:27:45
Lauren Brown
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And all of this comes together with a nice little bow on this final,
00:27:53
Rich
So.
00:27:57
Lauren Brown
thought is that you have a lack of race plan discipline stick to the plan right so ultimately many blow ups come down to execution error so it's not necessarily fitness right it's just that you're in the moment you abandon your pacing strategy your fueling strategy hurt or hydration maybe fall off track based on how you're feeling in the moment And I would say'm like, when you first get on the bike, of course, you're going feel great if you're just starting.
00:28:31
Lauren Brown
At the start of the run, of course, you're going feel great. Oh, maybe you're just starting. like And you're you're not thinking logically about why your plan was in place in the first place, right? So... It's the challenges that the short term feelings, the excitement, the competitiveness, or even even panic, because that also can can play a part, at least the decisions that hurt your long term performance. Because it's like you're thinking on emotion instead of logic.
00:28:59
Lauren Brown
And so you
Fun Story and Key Takeaways
00:29:00
Lauren Brown
need to think logically and not emotionally in the moment and successful athletes, they stay disciplined, especially when it's really tempting not to, especially when you want to feel like a five-year-old on a one-mile fun run.
00:29:00
Rich
That's right.
00:29:30
Rich
But I would volunteer to ride the lead bike whenever they hosted the elementary school fun run.
00:29:35
Lauren Brown
Yup.
00:29:37
Rich
And it was just like you said, the first through third grade or first through second grade kids, they always came out faster then then the than the other you know four grades did.
00:29:48
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:29:52
Rich
But they were also like all just like dying after the first 50 yards.
00:29:56
Lauren Brown
Yeah. Yeah. It's the best. They're like, and they're like walking and collapsing and,
00:29:58
Rich
That's awesome.
00:30:02
Rich
So cute. wow. Yeah, this is this was gold. these are These were some great tips. And listen, we're just going to leave you with just five you know key takeaways here. Listen, ride your race, not your fitness. Stick to your plan, power, effort, zones.
00:30:20
Rich
Ego riding destroys running legs. you know this said we said a couple episodes ago, this is this is a thinking athlete's sport. you're going to be, the the race is going to judge you by the sum of your decisions and the sum of your choices, uh, normalize the first mile feeling.
00:30:34
Lauren Brown
Yep.
00:30:39
Rich
The first mile will feel awkward. Don't go chase per pace too early. Do a cadence reset off the bike. Use quick light steps early to help transition your muscular patterns. Fuel for the run during the bike. You're not fueling for the bike. You're also fueling for the run.
00:30:55
Rich
prioritize carbs late in the rut in the ride. You're going to need them and then execute a controlled t two exit, smooth, composed, and intentional. Don't sprint out of transition.
00:31:06
Rich
There There you go.
00:31:08
Lauren Brown
Love it. Yes. This was so many great tips and we're going shift gears to the fun segment that is going to be themed base of based off of this topic. So, uh,
00:31:22
Rich
Love this. Love this.
00:31:23
Lauren Brown
You ready?
00:31:23
Rich
oh Yes.
00:31:23
Lauren Brown
You ready, Coach Rich?
00:31:25
Rich
Lay it on me.
00:31:25
Lauren Brown
All right. All right. So, all right.
00:31:26
Rich
What we got going on
00:31:27
Lauren Brown
Before we wrap up today's episode, you guys know it's time for a little self-assessment. So we're going to call this game run legs or red flags. Here's how it's going to work.
00:31:38
Lauren Brown
So we're goingnna describe something that happens during the first few miles of a triathlon run. And then we're going to decide, and you guys decide along with us, whether it's run legs. So it's something that's Totally normal.
00:31:52
Lauren Brown
Trust the process. Keep executing. Or is it a red flag? Your race plan is about to just leave the chat, you guys.
00:32:02
Lauren Brown
So let's play. You ready?
00:32:07
Rich
I'm ready for, I'm ready.
00:32:08
Lauren Brown
All right. So I'll kick it off with number one.
00:32:08
Rich
Lay it on me.
00:32:10
Lauren Brown
So you come out of T2. Your legs feel awkward, stiff, completely disconnected from your body. Is this a run leg or a red flag?
00:32:20
Rich
Oh, I love this. Can I, can I phone a friend on this one?
00:32:24
Lauren Brown
Phone a friend.
00:32:25
Rich
No, just kidding. Coach April. Oh my God. I'm going to so do this.
00:32:33
Lauren Brown
Let's see if she picks up.
00:32:33
Rich
Let's just see if she answers. Okay.
00:32:35
Lauren Brown
Oh, this will be hysterical.
00:32:36
Rich
Are you, are you ready for this?
00:32:37
Lauren Brown
You better put it on speaker. You guys.
00:32:39
Rich
Oh, oh, oh yes, yes, yes, yes. yes Okay. here we go. Let's go coach April.
00:32:45
Rich
See, she, if this goes to voicemail, man, I tell you what, we are going to have words.
00:32:50
Lauren Brown
And now we're going to we needed to phone a friend. What was, we need to know your take coach April on run legs or red flags.
00:32:59
Rich
But, uh, oh, there we go. Okay, here we go. Ready? All right.
00:33:01
Lauren Brown
All right, let's phone a friend.
00:33:03
Rich
Speaker.
00:33:05
Rich
you hear that?
00:33:06
Lauren Brown
can hear it. Yeah. You're little closer to the mic.
00:33:11
Rich
Hey, April, I'm so glad that you answered the phone.
00:33:12
Lauren Brown
Hey.
00:33:13
Rich
This is awesome. Listen, I'm i'm recording a podcast with Coach Lauren. we're We're live in recording and and we're playing the game, run legs or red flags. I got the first question here from Coach Lauren. You come out of T2 and your legs feel awkward, stiff, and completely disconnected from your body. Run legs or red flags.
00:33:35
Rich
I asked if I could call a friend. Phone a friend. I got permission. So here what is it, April? What is it? Is it run legs or red flags? Say it again, Rich. I'm sorry.
00:33:45
Rich
You're awesome. Here we go. You come out of T2 and your legs feel awkward, stiff, and completely disconnected from your body. Is that red red a red flag or is that run legs? run legs.
00:33:58
Rich
Those are run legs. All right. Coach Lauren, did I get that right? Do we know?
00:34:02
Lauren Brown
I agree that those are in fact run legs.
00:34:04
Rich
agrees. She agrees.
00:34:06
Lauren Brown
yes
00:34:07
Rich
definitely think it takes like little bit for those to come around, Just want to thank you so much. That really helped me get through this first one. You're only first one. But that's okay. I think I've got it from here. You show me the way, but, and and also thanks for the cameo on the pod, by the way, I'm going to, I'm holding your picture up to the camera so people can see you.
00:34:33
Rich
my gosh. Okay. All right. enjoy the fun segment We will. We are, as you can tell. I can All right. See ya. Bye. Bye.
00:34:43
Rich
That's awesome.
00:34:44
Lauren Brown
So funny.
00:34:46
Rich
All right. Are you ready for the quick the question? and You can phone a friend too if you want. All right. You look at your watch, Coach Law, and in the first mile, you realize you're running 30 seconds per mile faster than planned.
00:34:57
Rich
Run legs or red flags?
00:35:00
Lauren Brown
I'm going to go with both. Can I go with both on this one? Cause it is run legs, but it is a red flag that your booty better slow down.
00:35:04
Rich
Okay.
00:35:09
Rich
I agree. I think that's right. I agree with that one.
00:35:13
Lauren Brown
Yeah. All right. You passed 20 people in the first half mile immediately decide you're having the race of your life run legs or red flags.
00:35:26
Rich
for For me, that would definitely be a red flag.
00:35:31
Lauren Brown
Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:32
Rich
Yeah, no way.
00:35:33
Lauren Brown
I mean, mean, mean, for me that I usually pick people off on the run. I'm a little bit stronger on the run but I mean, 20 people in the first half mile, that's a red flag. That means my butt is sprinting.
00:35:48
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:35:49
Rich
Yeah.
00:35:50
Lauren Brown
Keep
00:35:50
Rich
Yep. I'm used to this. So I'm like, okay. Yeah. Hey, nice job. you you're cur You're killing it.
00:35:54
Lauren Brown
going. yeah keep going
00:35:58
Rich
All right. You miss an aid station because grabbing water could cost too much time. Run legs or red flags.
00:36:05
Lauren Brown
That's a total red flag, red flag all the way.
00:36:07
Rich
Big time, right? Yeah. No, no friend call needed.
00:36:13
Lauren Brown
No. All right. You divide the run into smaller segments and focus on getting only on getting to the next landmark run legs or red flags.
00:36:24
Rich
Oh, think this is a good run legs. Yeah. I love dividing the run up into segments. In fact, all my races, I'm like, you know, that's a section and that's a section and that's a section.
00:36:34
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:36:37
Lauren Brown
I think those are, I think those are actually smart run legs.
00:36:40
Rich
Yeah. Thank you.
00:36:41
Lauren Brown
All right. Yeah.
00:36:42
Rich
Thank you. We've got some good run legs.
00:36:43
Lauren Brown
I agree with you. All right. And mild. so Oh, no.
00:36:48
Rich
Oh, we're all goofed up here, right?
00:36:48
Lauren Brown
Yeah. Yeah.
00:36:49
Rich
No, are we good?
00:36:50
Lauren Brown
Yeah. yeah yeah
00:36:51
Rich
Oh, yeah. Okay. So I've got to ask you.
00:36:53
Lauren Brown
yeah
00:36:55
Rich
right. So let's let's let's put some context here. Mile two of a 70.3, a half Ironman, and you start doing the the the complicated finish time math at mile two, run legs or red flags?
00:37:14
Lauren Brown
That's a red flag to me. That to me is like, for me at mile two, I'm kind of like settling into my groove.
00:37:16
Rich
Uh-huh.
00:37:23
Lauren Brown
I'm not doing, and i also don't do math. I will be like, I'm more of like, what pace am I just trying to hold? So I would say if i'm if I'm concerned at mile two and I still have 11 to go and I'm trying to do the complicated math, I might say that's a red flag for me.
00:37:44
Rich
I think that's, I agree with that too, right? Yeah, it's too early to be doing doing the math, right? You know, well and I think it could also be psychologically damaging, right?
00:37:50
Lauren Brown
Yeah, you still have 11 miles to go.
00:37:56
Rich
Because you might be going, wait a minute, I got to be out here for another hour and a half? You know, like, what?
00:38:01
Lauren Brown
Right. Like, how is my body feeling? Oh, I'm going to to do.
00:38:03
Rich
it did did
00:38:04
Lauren Brown
yeah
00:38:05
Rich
you know Don't send your body that signal yet. too early. i love your I love your, like, just focus on your pace and just get the pace right. There's time for math later.
00:38:12
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:38:14
Rich
that That's actually one of my, that's how I know I'm in zone four. i can't do math anymore in my head.
00:38:19
Lauren Brown
Yeah. Yeah. And also the reality is, is like, Don't worry about the math. You gotta to run by how you're feeling at that moment also, if you're like, but if you're just starting to try to do the math and you're like, oh, well then I should be going a certain pace and you're really not in a position to be going that pace, you might also be screwing yourself, right? Like if you're like, oh, well, if I do the math then I should actually be running at like a 7.45 pace and I'm not there. So now i'm gonna try to run faster even though I'm tanked right now.
00:38:47
Lauren Brown
you might You might be hurting yourself.
00:38:50
Rich
Yeah. Yep.
00:38:51
Lauren Brown
All right. You start telling yourself this feels almost too easy. Run laser and it flags.
00:38:57
Rich
Well, first of all, I hope to dear God that happens on Sunday. That would be awesome.
00:39:04
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:39:05
Rich
But it is what you do with that signal next that matters. I would say that that is a run legs and you can keep it a run legs as long as you make a smart decision.
00:39:10
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:39:22
Rich
If you take that feeling and go, oh This feels, i'm I'm going threshold pace here or or the target pace. It feels too easy.
00:39:32
Rich
That's a great thing to feel.
00:39:32
Lauren Brown
Right. yeah
00:39:34
Rich
That means you took care of things up front. Way to go, Joe. What you don't want to do is now go, oh, well then I can just run 30 seconds a mile faster than I normally have in all of my running and training.
00:39:48
Rich
and That would be a red flag.
00:39:52
Lauren Brown
Yeah, I'm gonna go optimistic and go, run legs. Hell yeah, go for it. there
00:39:58
Rich
Yeah.
00:39:59
Rich
All right. love this. This has been so much fun. Final question. Lauren, you're halfway through the run. Your pace is nice and steady. Posture looks really strong. Stayed on top of the fueling. And and suddenly all these athletes were flying by you earlier are now coming back to you.
00:40:18
Rich
Run legs or red flags?
00:40:21
Lauren Brown
let's see all those athletes who flew by that is Ron.
00:40:24
Rich
you're you're Now you're passing them.
00:40:24
Lauren Brown
hey
00:40:25
Rich
Now you're passing them.
00:40:26
Lauren Brown
That Ron Lennox baby. You run.
00:40:29
Rich
You run for the door. There you got it. Run like you stole something, Law.
00:40:33
Lauren Brown
yep Run it. Like you still want. Yup.
00:40:35
Lauren Brown
Same for you. I'm guessing. Right.
00:40:37
Rich
Well, you know, if I'm on the back half, i you know I certainly am feeling a little bit like I know that I paced it better than them.
00:40:45
Lauren Brown
Yeah. That's always a good sign. So this was so much fun. I hope you guys were playing along with us and have some really, really great takeaways from tonight's podcast. So just a reminder that the best run splits in triathlon rarely look dramatic.
00:41:04
Lauren Brown
They look disciplined. And that's the lesson, right? You don't find your run legs on race day You earn them through smart biking, smart fueling and smart execution because the run isn't where the race begins. It's where all your decisions, I love this, finally show up.
00:41:26
Rich
You know, the phrase that I love is bike for show run for dough, right?
00:41:32
Lauren Brown
Yes.
00:41:32
Rich
You know, if you over bike, you just be in a showboat, you know, it's the, it's the run is run is where the money, where the money happens. So folks, and, and,
00:41:41
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
Promoting Vespa and Listener Engagement
00:41:44
Rich
On top of all this, listen, don't forget your Vespa as you go out the door here, you know, visiting us this week. You know, Vespa Power Endurance. this is not a This is not a nutrition product per se. It's not a fuel, but it's a metabolic catalyst. It really helps you shift your body into using more fat and less glycogen as your fuel source source or sugar as your as your fuel source.
00:42:07
Rich
I keep forgetting. We're going to do this like next week, I swear. We're going to, in the middle of the podcast, I'm going to take Vespa. We're going record what my metabolic substrate that I'm burning is, the fat versus sugar.
00:42:21
Rich
Then I'm going to take a Vespa and then we're going record it again, like after 30 minutes, like at the end of the podcast.
00:42:26
Lauren Brown
Cool.
00:42:28
Rich
We got to do that next week. That'd be fun.
00:42:31
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:42:31
Rich
So check it out. We've got a a link here in the show notes. You can check it out yourself. There's a code here, G2GVespa15, easy for me to say, and you'll get 15% off of everything in your cart all the time.
00:42:44
Rich
So Hey, I guess with that, we're going to sign off. This has been awesome. la Love doing this with you.
00:42:51
Lauren Brown
This was great. I loved it.
00:42:52
Rich
Yeah, we're going to send you good vibes here from Boulder this weekend. And folks following us here, thanks for spending time with us this week on the Grit to Greatness Endurance podcast. We hope that you're following us on our newsletter. If you're not subscribed on our newsletter, go to our website, subscribe, check us out, check out our check out the swag, check out the mugs, check out the hats, check out the shirts.
00:43:16
Rich
And if you enjoyed the podcast, please follow us. Leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or YouTube. This helps us reach more athletes just like you. Stay gritty, train smart, and keep chasing greatness.
00:43:29
Rich
Hey, we're going to catch you next week.