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00:00:01
Pro Triathlete Grace Alexander
30 Plays2 months ago
#504 Run-Specific Periodization for Fall Races
Welcome
Welcome to Episode #504 of the 303 Endurance Podcast. We're your hosts Coaches Rich Soares and April Spilde. Thanks for joining us for another week of news, coaching tips and discussion.
We are super excited to have professional triathlete, Grace Alexander joining us for the feature interview this week. In 2020, Grace became the first female to win an overall IRONMAN-branded age-group race (against both men and women). This year she has been all over the professional podium. We are excited to be talking to her today.
April, how are you and what else do we have for our audience today?
Hey Rich, I’m doing great and stoked that it seems, at least in the Springs, that we are entering into some amazing Fall weather. And believe it or not, Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back on the menu!
Show Sponsor: UCAN
UCAN created LIVSTEADY as an alternative to sugar based nutrition products. LIVSTEADY was purposefully designed to work with your body, delivering long-lasting energy you can feel. Whether UCAN Energy Powders, Bars or Gels, LIVSTEADY's unique time-release profile allows your body to access energy consistently throughout the day, unlocking your natural ability to finish stronger and recover more quickly!
In Today's Show
-
Announcements and News: Rich
-
Ask A Coach: Interview with Grace Alexander
-
Get Gritty Tip: One Step Back. Three Steps Forward.
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TriDot Workout of the Week: The Long Ride (Stamina Ride)
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Fun Segment: Triathlon: Pumpkin Spice or Power Meters?
Announcements and News:
Our Announcements are supported by VESPA Power today.
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Less sugar. Higher performance. Faster recovery.
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Boulder Sunset Recap
Series Registration Now Open for the 2025–2026 Run Denver Series
Exclusive Swag Available for Series Registrants
DENVER, CO /ENDURANCE SPORTSWIRE/ – The most beloved winter running tradition in the Mile High City is back! Series registration is officially OPEN for the 2025–2026 RunDenver Race Series, a five-race celebration of community, fitness, and fun — all set against the stunning backdrop of Colorado’s winter wonderland.
Registration for individual races will open soon, but those looking for the full experience can sign up NOW for the complete five-race series. Series participants will receive themed swag at each event, bonus finisher bling, and additional perks throughout the season.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
I mean, I learned that there's no backing down.
00:00:02
Speaker
Like, there's never a spot where you can relax in those races.
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome, everybody, to your 303 Endurance Podcast.
00:00:10
Speaker
Aloha, everybody, get ready for your 303 Endurance Podcast.
00:00:16
Speaker
Woo!
00:00:28
Speaker
Welcome to episode 504 of the 303 Endurance Podcast.
Hosts and Show Content
00:00:31
Speaker
We're your hosts, coaches, Rich Sores, and April Spilde.
00:00:34
Speaker
Thanks for joining us for another week of news, coaching tips, discussion, and an interview.
00:00:39
Speaker
We are super excited.
00:00:40
Speaker
We have professional triathlete Grace Alexander joining us for the feature interview this
Feature on Grace Alexander
00:00:45
Speaker
week.
00:00:45
Speaker
Hello.
00:00:46
Speaker
In 2020, Grace became the first female to win an overall Ironman-branded age group race against both men and women.
00:00:55
Speaker
This year, she has been all over the professional podium.
00:00:58
Speaker
We are really excited to be talking to her today.
00:01:01
Speaker
April, how are you, and what else do we have for our audience today?
Weather and Pumpkin Spice Conversation
00:01:06
Speaker
That's incredible.
00:01:07
Speaker
That's incredible.
00:01:07
Speaker
So I'm doing great.
00:01:10
Speaker
I'm stoked that it seems, at least in the springs, that we are entering into some amazing fall weather.
00:01:17
Speaker
And believe it or not, pumpkin spice lattes are now back on the menu.
00:01:22
Speaker
I had my first one yesterday.
00:01:24
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:01:25
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:01:25
Speaker
Good for you.
00:01:26
Speaker
You know what?
Trivia Question: Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes
00:01:27
Speaker
I've got a trivia question for you, April.
00:01:30
Speaker
Which of the following three countries does not have pumpkin spice latte on the menu in a Starbucks?
00:01:41
Speaker
Is it A, Great Britain, B, South Africa, or C, Japan?
00:01:50
Speaker
I wouldn't have the slightest clue.
00:01:53
Speaker
South Africa?
00:01:54
Speaker
Japan.
00:01:55
Speaker
Oh, interesting.
00:01:58
Speaker
How about that for a trivia?
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, I had no idea.
00:02:04
Speaker
All right.
00:02:04
Speaker
Well, there you go, folks.
00:02:06
Speaker
Well, if you're not going to get a pumpkin spice latte in Japan, maybe you can get a UCAN.
Sponsorship Highlight: Generation UCAN
00:02:10
Speaker
You know, maybe.
00:02:11
Speaker
Nice, nice, nice.
00:02:12
Speaker
How about that for a segue?
00:02:13
Speaker
That was good.
00:02:15
Speaker
Folks, our show sponsor, total cheese, our show sponsor is Generation UCAN.
00:02:20
Speaker
UCAN created Live Steady as an alternative to sugar-based nutrition products.
00:02:25
Speaker
Live Steady was purposely designed to work with your body, delivering long-lasting energy you could feel.
00:02:30
Speaker
Whether it's UCAN energy powders, bars, or gels, Live Steady's unique time-release profile allows your body to access clean energy consistently throughout the day, unlocking your natural ability to finish stronger and recover more quickly.
00:02:44
Speaker
Or you can have a pumpkin spice latte loaded with sugar.
00:02:48
Speaker
and whipped cream.
00:02:50
Speaker
Yes.
Interview with Grace Alexander on Recovery
00:02:51
Speaker
Uh, this week on the three Oh three endurance podcast, Rich and I are going to sit down with professional triathlete, Grace Alexander.
00:02:58
Speaker
She is an exceptional interview.
00:03:00
Speaker
We had a lot of fun talking with her.
00:03:03
Speaker
We're also going to share our get gritty tip for the week where we're going to challenge you to think about recovery in a new way, taking a step back and moving three steps forward.
00:03:13
Speaker
And then we have our tread out workout of the week, which is our stamina ride.
00:03:17
Speaker
We're going to share how to approach this key session to build endurance on the bike while training your mind to handle the demands of long course.
00:03:25
Speaker
And then just for fun, Rich, of course, we'll wrap up with a seasonal twist today.
00:03:31
Speaker
I call this the pumpkin spice or power meters fun segment.
00:03:37
Speaker
So
00:03:37
Speaker
We'll be doing a little of this or that.
00:03:39
Speaker
Ooh, that sounds like fun.
00:03:42
Speaker
All right.
00:03:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:43
Speaker
So let's get to it.
00:03:44
Speaker
Let's get to it.
00:03:45
Speaker
All right.
Product Highlight: Vespa Power Endurance
00:03:46
Speaker
So, hey, just a couple of things in announcements, really, and it's just a few reflections on races, but we're going to get into that in just a second.
00:03:55
Speaker
I want to give a quick shout out to Vespa Power Endurance.
00:03:58
Speaker
It really helps you tap into steady, clean energy so you can stay strong, focused, and in the zone longer.
00:04:05
Speaker
Vespa is not fuel.
00:04:06
Speaker
It's a metabolic catalyst that shifts your body to use more fat and less sugar as your fuel source.
00:04:12
Speaker
Vespa comes in multiple products, CV25, Junior, and Concentrate.
00:04:18
Speaker
Less sugar, higher performance, and faster recovery.
00:04:20
Speaker
There is a
00:04:22
Speaker
code here in the show notes 303 endurance 20 uh and you can just use the link right here it'll take you right there for your uh your shopping enjoyment um i just i just got a text of how much vespa caroline just bought with her cat sitting on top of the box it was pretty funny oh that's so good
00:04:46
Speaker
So there you go,
Boulder Sunset Race Recap
00:04:47
Speaker
folks.
00:04:47
Speaker
April, let's talk about Boulder Sunset, BBSC Boulder Sunset last weekend.
00:04:55
Speaker
Very interesting morning.
00:04:56
Speaker
It ended up raining on us, starting raining in transition, but we had a lot of fun in transition.
00:05:03
Speaker
Maybe talk, let's just start, let's just start there.
00:05:06
Speaker
Yeah, so it was you, me, Roger, Sasha Goldsberry.
00:05:13
Speaker
We were all showing up.
00:05:14
Speaker
I didn't actually get to see Roger.
00:05:16
Speaker
Did he just go right to the start?
00:05:19
Speaker
He came in kind of late, but we also had Hunter Stokes there too.
00:05:22
Speaker
And Hunter.
00:05:23
Speaker
Yes.
00:05:23
Speaker
Hunter.
00:05:24
Speaker
Congratulations to Hunter.
00:05:26
Speaker
But yeah, we started our morning with a lot of glad tidings and also, uh, coach Lawrence mobility flow, which Rich and I probably put on display in front of everybody in transition.
00:05:40
Speaker
It was actually kind of epic.
00:05:42
Speaker
Twice.
00:05:42
Speaker
Twice.
00:05:42
Speaker
Because we actually did it once without the camera rolling or recording.
00:05:46
Speaker
Of course.
00:05:47
Speaker
And then we did it again, which is awesome.
00:05:49
Speaker
And it was like right there while people were like in line for the porta potties.
00:05:52
Speaker
We were like right next to them.
00:05:53
Speaker
It was pretty fun.
00:05:54
Speaker
It was a great background too, Rich.
00:05:57
Speaker
Full line of porta potties.
00:05:58
Speaker
No, it was good.
00:06:00
Speaker
We know how to set up a shot.
00:06:01
Speaker
We do.
00:06:03
Speaker
Oh, God.
00:06:03
Speaker
Yes.
00:06:04
Speaker
So actually I felt really good after we did that.
00:06:06
Speaker
Like I felt honestly ready to go.
00:06:11
Speaker
Yeah, like you said, too, you could just see the storm clouds rolling in.
00:06:15
Speaker
It was like this harbinger of disaster waiting to happen.
00:06:22
Speaker
But I personally love it when it rains during a triathlon.
00:06:26
Speaker
That's me.
00:06:27
Speaker
I like cold races.
00:06:30
Speaker
I love having that advantage.
00:06:32
Speaker
So as long as there's no lightning, like I say, welcome, bring it on.
00:06:38
Speaker
And, you know, I, I, I didn't really see the forecast.
00:06:42
Speaker
I got to tell you.
00:06:43
Speaker
And I mean, I came in so, so prepared for this.
00:06:45
Speaker
And I, so I had dark lenses and I was like, man, you know, it's really overcast.
00:06:50
Speaker
It's, you know, usually you just kind of like aim for the sun, you know, that usually takes you to that first buoy.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:57
Speaker
Not, I'm like, I was joking with the other guys and we were standing there in the water.
00:07:01
Speaker
I'm like, we usually just go for the sun.
00:07:04
Speaker
What do we do today?
00:07:05
Speaker
You know?
00:07:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:07
Speaker
Yeah, I will say that swim was a bit rough.
00:07:12
Speaker
Definitely a lot of congestion.
00:07:14
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:07:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think that was the most churn I've experienced from people, not from the weather, but from the people that I've ever had in a race.
00:07:24
Speaker
I had some guy just going like literally 90 degrees from the direction of the course, like right across in front of me.
00:07:33
Speaker
Like, where are you going, brother?
00:07:35
Speaker
Race is over this way.
00:07:36
Speaker
Pick your head up and look.
00:07:40
Speaker
You're going the wrong way.
00:07:43
Speaker
Oh, that's funny.
00:07:43
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with you.
00:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, it was pretty congested.
00:07:46
Speaker
A little contact on the swim.
00:07:49
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:07:50
Speaker
And then the bike, I mean, it rained heavily.
00:07:54
Speaker
I mean, like throughout the bike.
00:07:55
Speaker
I mean, I was like going through puddles and you like- Hydroplaning.
00:07:58
Speaker
You can hear the splash back.
00:08:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:01
Speaker
Worry about hydroplaning.
00:08:04
Speaker
But I, at the same time, I was like, oh, that's really refreshing.
00:08:06
Speaker
I never got cold.
00:08:08
Speaker
Me neither.
00:08:09
Speaker
Which was nice because that is a concern, right?
00:08:13
Speaker
When you're out in the wind and cold and your feet start to freeze and it's hard to switch.
00:08:20
Speaker
But no, I thought I thought it was excellent.
00:08:23
Speaker
I would much rather have cooler weather like that than just blazing hot in the sun with no shade.
00:08:29
Speaker
I did have to take my glasses off because the splash from the vehicles and from the riders, I just couldn't keep my glasses clean.
00:08:39
Speaker
Yeah, I had the visor, which it had some rain on it, but I was able to see okay.
00:08:45
Speaker
I didn't wear any sunglasses on the run.
00:08:49
Speaker
No hat, no glasses, just...
00:08:51
Speaker
Like I'm running through the shower, you know?
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:56
Speaker
You had that fresh look.
00:08:58
Speaker
It was muddy.
00:08:59
Speaker
That course was muddy.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah, it was muddy and it was... But it was a blast.
00:09:07
Speaker
It was a blast.
00:09:07
Speaker
I loved it.
00:09:08
Speaker
Definitely a way to go out with bang.
00:09:11
Speaker
And do you want to share the results?
00:09:13
Speaker
Well, sure.
00:09:14
Speaker
You know, I'll tell you one of the things I really did like about the course before you talk about results was I liked the two lap run for the, for the 10 K that for me is mentally easier than the straight out back.
00:09:29
Speaker
Cause that little outback that like far, that furthest section up, there's got some Hills, right?
00:09:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:35
Speaker
And the footing isn't like, it's the single track, the footing is a little dicey and that's so that I waste a little energy on the footing.
00:09:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:44
Speaker
But this is like so wide open and straightforward and you get multiple looks.
00:09:50
Speaker
You can run people down and you could see how close they're getting to you if they're trying to run you down, which kind of brings us to some results we could talk about here in a second.
00:10:00
Speaker
Do you want to hit some of yours and Sasha's results?
00:10:06
Speaker
Heck yeah.
00:10:07
Speaker
So what, first off, Sasha, we talked about this like four days before the race.
00:10:14
Speaker
I was like, you should come do this with us.
00:10:17
Speaker
It's like, this will be a good fun one.
00:10:19
Speaker
You know, she's getting ready for Marbella and that's a few months away.
00:10:22
Speaker
And I'm like, have a fun race with us.
00:10:24
Speaker
You've been so competitive and doing great all year long.
00:10:28
Speaker
Let's just go have fun.
00:10:29
Speaker
Well, of course, like,
00:10:31
Speaker
She's just such a phenomenal athlete.
00:10:33
Speaker
She went, she did exactly what I asked her to do, but she also won first place in her age group.
00:10:38
Speaker
So she's just so awesome.
00:10:43
Speaker
So yeah, I asked her how she did.
00:10:44
Speaker
She was, Oh, I won.
00:10:45
Speaker
I'm like, okay, of course you did.
00:10:50
Speaker
And then I, you know, I raced this last year and I had a blast last year and I came in second in Athena last year.
00:10:59
Speaker
This year I came in first and I'm so happy about that, but even more, I'm even happier that I, uh, PR this race.
00:11:07
Speaker
I think it was by over six minutes.
00:11:09
Speaker
So yeah, thank you.
00:11:10
Speaker
I'm very happy with that.
00:11:11
Speaker
The, the run was my best, uh, segment.
00:11:16
Speaker
Which that's awesome.
00:11:17
Speaker
I was surprised because the run is usually my weakest and hey, a 5k seems to do seems to do me well.
00:11:26
Speaker
So it was like you said, it was nice to have that turn.
00:11:29
Speaker
It was nice to see you.
00:11:32
Speaker
I got to see Sasha.
00:11:33
Speaker
She was coming back.
00:11:34
Speaker
I was like, this is I love this.
00:11:36
Speaker
So gave everyone high fives.
00:11:39
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:11:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:41
Speaker
When I was out there on that first lap, I saw you, I saw Sasha and I saw Hunter and Hunter was like coming in for the finish.
00:11:49
Speaker
He did great.
00:11:50
Speaker
You know, this is his very first triathlon and you should see his Instagram.
00:11:54
Speaker
It is a tribute to his, like these, these videos of flashing back to his dad and then him.
00:12:01
Speaker
I'll say I'll, I'll forward it to you.
00:12:03
Speaker
Hunter.
00:12:04
Speaker
What?
00:12:04
Speaker
I'm going to check that out.
00:12:05
Speaker
Thank you for that.
00:12:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
00:12:09
Speaker
So, and then, you know, my brother and I have raced a few races together.
00:12:14
Speaker
We've done two 70.3s in Boulder.
00:12:18
Speaker
We've also done the full Ironman in Boulder in 2014.
00:12:23
Speaker
And this was just another one of those opportunities for my younger brother to show me how fast he is.
00:12:33
Speaker
We, uh, we ended up starting in the same race.
00:12:36
Speaker
wave because our wave was 40 and over, I think, or 45 and over 40 and over, I think.
00:12:41
Speaker
And so my brother is in the 50 to 54 age group.
00:12:44
Speaker
I'm in the 55 to 59 age group.
00:12:48
Speaker
Our, this is, this is pretty fun.
00:12:49
Speaker
Our swims, I'll give you Rogers and then mine through each of these Roger 36, 17, uh, myself 30, 23 T one Roger two 32 rich one 42.
00:12:56
Speaker
Nice.
00:12:56
Speaker
This is crazy bike.
00:13:05
Speaker
1 16, 18 for Roger for me, 1 16, 0 1 17 second difference in 40 K in the rain.
00:13:11
Speaker
T2 Roger, two 23 rich to 25 Roger run 50 13 rich 54 59 with a final result of Roger two 48 0 5 and rich two 45 51.
00:13:29
Speaker
Oh, so I got third place in my age group.
00:13:32
Speaker
Roger got second place in his age group.
00:13:34
Speaker
Wow.
00:13:36
Speaker
And so I had to tease my brother and tell him, you know, if you were racing in my age group, you wouldn't have even gotten on the podium, my friend.
00:13:44
Speaker
I love you, Roger.
00:13:46
Speaker
Goodness.
00:13:47
Speaker
It was a blast racing with you and seeing Minori and having family.
00:13:51
Speaker
It was, it was fun.
00:13:53
Speaker
Great time.
00:13:54
Speaker
That sibling rivalry is still alive and well.
00:13:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:00
Speaker
He doesn't let me forget anything I ever did to him as his older brother.
00:14:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:04
Speaker
He told me, man.
00:14:04
Speaker
He told me.
00:14:06
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:14:06
Speaker
They're terrible.
00:14:09
Speaker
Anyway, and thanks Travis and the BBSC team.
00:14:12
Speaker
Great race.
00:14:13
Speaker
Thanks for keeping everybody safe even though it was like raining and stuff, but great to see all sorts of friends.
00:14:18
Speaker
We've got a lot of friends up there too.
00:14:21
Speaker
All right.
00:14:22
Speaker
The next thing I want to just give a shout out for here is again, take a look at this.
00:14:29
Speaker
run the 2025, 2026 run Denver series.
00:14:33
Speaker
It is a series of five, five, five K's celebrating, uh, community fitness and fun.
00:14:41
Speaker
And a reason I want to bring this up is next week.
00:14:44
Speaker
We are going to be having our ask a coach, uh,
00:14:47
Speaker
section on rate run specific periodization for fall races.
00:14:52
Speaker
So we're going to go into a deeper dive in our ask a coach section next week on that.
00:14:57
Speaker
So stay tuned for that this week.
00:14:59
Speaker
However, we've got a different plan for you.
00:15:03
Speaker
So with that, that's our updates for this week.
00:15:05
Speaker
There's a, a link here in the show notes on how to learn more about the run Denver series and April, I'll turn it back to you.
00:15:14
Speaker
Excellent.
00:15:15
Speaker
We are going to head into our ask a coach section, but first let's bring in our sponsor.
00:15:20
Speaker
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00:15:30
Speaker
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00:15:38
Speaker
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00:15:41
Speaker
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00:15:45
Speaker
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00:15:48
Speaker
Click the links in our show notes and let's take that first step together.
00:15:52
Speaker
Awesome.
00:15:52
Speaker
And, and note that we've got both TriDot and RunDot.
00:15:55
Speaker
So, you know, take a look.
00:15:57
Speaker
If you want to get into a running program this time of year, maybe that's, maybe that's your decision.
00:16:01
Speaker
Stick with, you know, just, you know, focus on running.
00:16:04
Speaker
If you want to start your development, development phases for next season and you're ready to, or you still have some late season racing, sign up for TriDot.
00:16:14
Speaker
We'll help you either way.
00:16:16
Speaker
All right.
00:16:17
Speaker
You ready to do this, April?
00:16:18
Speaker
You ready to get into our interview with Grace Alexander?
00:16:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:22
Speaker
Yeah, this is great.
00:16:24
Speaker
All right.
00:16:24
Speaker
So quick setup.
00:16:25
Speaker
Before we get in there, we're going to introduce her in just a minute, but a little bit of a background.
00:16:31
Speaker
When I was in nationals in Milwaukee,
00:16:34
Speaker
The Thursday night before the race, there was a USA Triathlon Foundation Hall of Fame inductee ceremony, and they had a little gala beforehand where folks could get to know each other, mingle, just a little social and social happy hour type of a thing.
00:16:53
Speaker
And I had just grabbed some food and I was just looking for a table to sit and just eat something, eat a snack between conversations.
00:17:01
Speaker
And there was a very...
00:17:03
Speaker
Nice young woman who allowed me, who shared her table with me.
00:17:09
Speaker
And it turned out in our conversation that she had a coach who also happened to be a pro triathlete, which was amazing.
00:17:20
Speaker
And that ended up being our guest this week.
00:17:23
Speaker
So a huge, huge
00:17:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's really, really, it was really kind of a, I don't know, what do you call a- Serendipity?
00:17:32
Speaker
Serendipity.
00:17:33
Speaker
I like that.
00:17:33
Speaker
Let's just call it serendipity.
00:17:35
Speaker
No, Rich, I got to say, you got this kind of magnetic energy about you.
00:17:39
Speaker
You have such a way with bringing people in.
00:17:43
Speaker
Oh, well-
00:17:46
Speaker
I think I just kind of get lucky.
00:17:50
Speaker
You've got a lot of luck on your side if you're interviewing folks like Grace.
00:17:58
Speaker
Well, so thank you, Callie Simon, for the introduction and this interview.
00:18:06
Speaker
We're really excited about this.
00:18:06
Speaker
Let's just pivot on over there.
00:18:08
Speaker
Let's talk to Grace.
00:18:09
Speaker
We'll be back afterwards.
00:18:11
Speaker
Here we go.
00:18:12
Speaker
Catch you on the other side.
00:18:16
Speaker
All right.
00:18:17
Speaker
As you heard in our lead up, we are thrilled to welcome a rising force in professional triathlon.
00:18:23
Speaker
We've got Grace Alexander with us today.
00:18:26
Speaker
From collegiate swimmer to Ironman 70.3 champion overall, by the way, Grace has carved out a name for herself with grit.
00:18:36
Speaker
Grace Alexander.
00:18:37
Speaker
and a relentless pursuit of excellence.
00:18:39
Speaker
She is not only a top ranked pro in the PTO standings, but also a dedicated coach helping others find their own endurance breakthroughs.
00:18:48
Speaker
And that is actually how we got introduced.
00:18:51
Speaker
So more on that here in just a bit.
00:18:53
Speaker
So whether you're chasing a podium or your finish line, Grace is going to tell you about how she does it and how she helps others.
00:19:00
Speaker
Grace, it's awesome to have you here.
00:19:02
Speaker
Thank you so much, Rich.
00:19:03
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you all.
00:19:05
Speaker
Well, we are really excited to talk to you.
00:19:10
Speaker
You've been blowing things up for the last few years here.
00:19:12
Speaker
We want to get into, you know, kind of, first of all, how we got introduced and your bio and your racing of recent, how you turn pro, all of that stuff is coming up.
00:19:24
Speaker
But before we do that, we want to let our audience get to know you a little bit better and us too.
00:19:29
Speaker
So we've got this little game we call Two Truths and a Lie.
00:19:32
Speaker
We'll ask you for three statements about yourself, two of which you know to be true.
00:19:36
Speaker
One, you know to be a deceitful lie.
00:19:39
Speaker
Don't tell us which is which.
00:19:41
Speaker
April and I will try to pick.
00:19:44
Speaker
I have, I know I have a sticky note here.
00:19:47
Speaker
Rich is always prepared for this and I just try to go off the cuff.
00:19:51
Speaker
And I'm about 50, 50, 50 on this.
00:19:54
Speaker
I got to write it down.
00:19:55
Speaker
I'll forget it.
00:19:56
Speaker
Do you guess after all the questions or quickly after?
00:20:00
Speaker
Cause I don't want to give anything away.
00:20:02
Speaker
You give us the three, just list them out and put them in a weird order.
00:20:06
Speaker
So we can, it's not like obvious.
00:20:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:08
Speaker
Then we're just going to sit here and we're going to go.
00:20:10
Speaker
Hmm.
00:20:12
Speaker
Hmm.
00:20:12
Speaker
Thinking caps on.
00:20:13
Speaker
So when you're ready, detective work.
00:20:16
Speaker
Number one.
00:20:17
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:18
Speaker
I have three older brothers.
00:20:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:21
Speaker
And two.
00:20:23
Speaker
I swam year round growing up.
00:20:25
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:27
Speaker
And three.
00:20:28
Speaker
I did an iron kids triathlon when I was 14.
00:20:31
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:33
Speaker
April, you want to go first?
00:20:36
Speaker
I always get put in the hot seat here, but okay.
00:20:39
Speaker
I think that you absolutely did iron kids.
00:20:42
Speaker
That sounds amazing.
00:20:44
Speaker
I think, yes, you swam year round.
00:20:47
Speaker
And I think that the lie is that instead of having three older brothers, you're like me and you have three sisters.
00:20:57
Speaker
I don't know what the sibling relationship here is either, but I am going with that as the lie as well.
00:21:04
Speaker
I just have, I mean, I know you were a swimmer.
00:21:07
Speaker
You swam year round.
00:21:08
Speaker
Of course you did.
00:21:10
Speaker
Iron kids, I really hope so.
00:21:13
Speaker
And then, yeah, so that's my answer too.
00:21:16
Speaker
I did not swim year round growing up.
00:21:20
Speaker
I have three older brothers.
00:21:21
Speaker
Oh, dang.
00:21:23
Speaker
Dang.
00:21:23
Speaker
So you have some fierce like guardians.
00:21:27
Speaker
Did they give you a hard time?
00:21:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:29
Speaker
I mean, I think it's what led to my competitive nature.
00:21:32
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:21:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:38
Speaker
So iron kids, when was your first iron kids?
00:21:42
Speaker
How old were you?
00:21:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think, so I think you can't,
00:21:48
Speaker
I forget the youngest age you can do it.
00:21:50
Speaker
I think it starts when you're like six, but I only did it the last two years.
00:21:54
Speaker
So I was 13 and 14 and then you, it ends at 15.
00:21:57
Speaker
So I, yeah, 13 and 14.
00:22:00
Speaker
So some of the kids that you were racing against at 13 and 14 had probably been doing it since they were six.
00:22:06
Speaker
Were you intimidated by them?
00:22:09
Speaker
No, I think you're kind of so oblivious at that age to stuff.
00:22:13
Speaker
And I, while I was internally competitive, I wasn't competitive.
00:22:17
Speaker
like I didn't go into the race knowing anyone.
00:22:20
Speaker
So I kind of just did my own thing and I ended up doing pretty well.
00:22:24
Speaker
There was one girl who was my main competition that I knew about the second year because I had raced her the first year that I had done it.
00:22:31
Speaker
And actually we're still friends to this day and she's in triathlon still, and she's a coach.
00:22:35
Speaker
So we're, it's funny how we've kind of grown up together in this.
00:22:40
Speaker
Grace, where was this?
00:22:41
Speaker
Atlanta.
00:22:43
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:43
Speaker
Atlanta.
00:22:44
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:44
Speaker
Do you feel like this might've been a bit of a catalyst for you to transition to triathlon after your swimming competitive swimming?
00:22:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:52
Speaker
I think just knowing about the sport at that young of an age kind of sparked the fire.
00:22:57
Speaker
I wouldn't say that I was all in that early on by any means.
00:23:01
Speaker
In fact, after I graduated college, I didn't even have any thought of doing sport again, but just knowing that that was a thing I signed up for one eventually after college and
00:23:12
Speaker
that's probably how it ignited the interest to some aspect.
00:23:17
Speaker
Holy smokes.
00:23:17
Speaker
That's cool.
00:23:20
Speaker
Well, that kind of brings me to the background a little bit here.
00:23:24
Speaker
Can you kind of take us back to your roots and how did your athletic journey begin?
00:23:28
Speaker
You had three older brothers who kind of instilled this competitive nature in you, but how did that lead to athletics?
00:23:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:37
Speaker
So my dad also ran in college.
00:23:39
Speaker
So I think that competitive nature came through along with three older brothers.
00:23:44
Speaker
We all did cross country and track in high school.
00:23:49
Speaker
And I actually did year round running in middle school.
00:23:53
Speaker
I was the only one of my family or my, my brothers, I guess that didn't go to this one school in Atlanta.
00:24:02
Speaker
It was a private school.
00:24:04
Speaker
And so my dad felt bad about that and he signed me up for a year-round running team instead.
00:24:11
Speaker
So I think that kind of is where my mind shifted from like academics to athletics for a little bit.
00:24:18
Speaker
And I really started to pursue running in middle school.
00:24:21
Speaker
I got pretty good into high school.
00:24:24
Speaker
I kind of went through that whole going through puberty as a female and my running really declined in ninth and 10th grade.
00:24:33
Speaker
And then I saw that my swimming was improving.
00:24:35
Speaker
So my interest kind of shifted more towards swimming.
00:24:38
Speaker
And then my senior year, my running started to come back a little bit.
00:24:42
Speaker
And I didn't want to give up running and focus full time on swimming and do year round swimming because that was my thought going into college.
00:24:51
Speaker
But I just loved running still.
00:24:53
Speaker
So I wanted to stick with cross country and track for my senior year.
00:24:55
Speaker
And I was able to do those three for my senior year.
00:24:59
Speaker
And I got just good enough in high school swimming to walk on to a D2 program in college.
00:25:06
Speaker
What was your favorite running event?
00:25:08
Speaker
I mean, I love cross country, so that was usually like a two or three mile run.
00:25:13
Speaker
And then in track, I just always went towards the longer distances because I have no ability to sprint.
00:25:21
Speaker
So cross country question.
00:25:24
Speaker
Did your coach make you not race with a watch?
00:25:31
Speaker
I don't think we, I did race with a watch ever, actually.
00:25:37
Speaker
I mean, back then all we had was the like little Ironman Timex watch.
00:25:40
Speaker
So all I was getting was overall time anyway.
00:25:43
Speaker
And I think it maybe had a lap button, but.
00:25:45
Speaker
Didn't have paste or anything like that.
00:25:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:47
Speaker
No.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:49
Speaker
Oh, gotcha.
00:25:50
Speaker
Well, cool.
00:25:52
Speaker
I tell you what, these kids today are spoiled.
00:25:53
Speaker
I know that's a little bit of a tangent, but my God, or maybe they're not spoiled.
00:25:58
Speaker
Maybe it was better to run without metrics.
00:26:02
Speaker
I think it's better without metrics.
00:26:04
Speaker
It's just too much data.
00:26:05
Speaker
Just if you don't know what you're doing with it.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:10
Speaker
Takes away the fun.
00:26:12
Speaker
Takes away the love.
00:26:13
Speaker
I would say too.
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:14
Speaker
Good point.
00:26:16
Speaker
So Grace,
00:26:17
Speaker
transitioning from competitive swimming, how, how did that happen with you for triathlon?
00:26:22
Speaker
So you've started with running cross country, competitive swimming, and then there was this, this change obviously.
00:26:30
Speaker
And like we talked about earlier, it wasn't immediate after iron kids.
00:26:34
Speaker
Right.
00:26:34
Speaker
But how did that happen for you?
00:26:36
Speaker
Yeah, so in college, I pretty much swam, you know, eight months out of the year.
00:26:42
Speaker
The season ended in February with the conference meet.
00:26:45
Speaker
And a few of the other swim team members would always sign up for one triathlon, usually in like April or May.
00:26:53
Speaker
It was a...
00:26:55
Speaker
I think it was like the lifetime Miami beach triathlon at the time.
00:26:58
Speaker
Cause I went to school in Florida.
00:26:59
Speaker
So it was an easy drive and we would always just dominate the swim.
00:27:03
Speaker
Cause we were just coming off a swim practice and that, or some team and just get passed by everyone on the bike and the run.
00:27:12
Speaker
But it was still really fun to come out of the water first and have our 10 seconds of fame or whatever.
00:27:19
Speaker
So again, familiar with the sport, but not really necessarily eyeing it competitively.
00:27:25
Speaker
And then after I graduated college, I pretty much didn't do anything for a year and a half.
00:27:33
Speaker
I was going out a lot and just having a lot of fun, if you will.
00:27:38
Speaker
And I
00:27:39
Speaker
was lucky that I recognized pretty early on that that wasn't going to lead me down a very good road.
00:27:45
Speaker
So I actually signed up for Orange Theory for a few months just to get myself back in shape because I knew from swimming coming back into the season, those first like month, six weeks is always just so tough and being surrounded by people and having a coach yell at you kind of helps me get
00:28:05
Speaker
get the workouts in.
00:28:06
Speaker
So I figured I would pay for that through Orange Theory.
00:28:10
Speaker
And then once I felt like I could do it on my own, I just signed up for a half marathon.
00:28:16
Speaker
So I started training for that.
00:28:18
Speaker
And I told myself if I could break two hours in the half marathon, then I would do a triathlon.
00:28:25
Speaker
And I did 158 for that half.
00:28:28
Speaker
And so I signed up for an Olympic distance triathlon in Jekyll Island in the following May.
00:28:35
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:28:37
Speaker
And then how did that first triathlon go?
00:28:40
Speaker
That's what I was going to say.
00:28:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:42
Speaker
So I crossed the finish line first, but I got a drafting penalty, which I didn't even know what drafting was.
00:28:50
Speaker
So I might have.
00:28:51
Speaker
But and then also there was like a timing error.
00:28:54
Speaker
So I they said I got third, but I got second with the penalty.
00:28:59
Speaker
So not bad.
00:29:00
Speaker
How did I'm sure that felt pretty amazing.
00:29:03
Speaker
Were you expecting to do that?
00:29:04
Speaker
Well,
00:29:05
Speaker
No, not at all.
00:29:05
Speaker
And that's definitely what I think almost immediately that day, actually, someone asked me if I was a pro and I was like, I want to go pro.
00:29:16
Speaker
So it was like a switch just flipped and I was like, this is my pursuit now.
00:29:21
Speaker
Wow.
00:29:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:23
Speaker
So take us, take us back to, was it Chattanooga 70.3 that you won overall?
00:29:31
Speaker
It was Gulf Coast.
00:29:32
Speaker
Gulf Coast.
00:29:33
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:33
Speaker
All right.
00:29:34
Speaker
Gulf Coast.
00:29:35
Speaker
And what was the month and year?
00:29:40
Speaker
So that was one of the first races back from COVID.
00:29:43
Speaker
So it was November 2020.
00:29:46
Speaker
November 2020.
00:29:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:49
Speaker
And is that what really kind of solidified it for you?
00:29:52
Speaker
And next year, didn't you have your Pro Card 2021?
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:59
Speaker
That first triathlon I did at Jekyll was 2016 or 17, I think.
00:30:04
Speaker
And then I had qualified for my pro card at St.
00:30:06
Speaker
Anthony's in 2018, but I decided not to take it yet because I was just realistic about where my times were compared to the pros.
00:30:14
Speaker
And I don't like
00:30:16
Speaker
bringing up the back of the pack.
00:30:17
Speaker
That's not really my vibe.
00:30:19
Speaker
So I decided to develop a little bit more as an athlete and see how close I could get.
00:30:25
Speaker
And then the ultimate goal was to win age group nationals.
00:30:30
Speaker
But because of COVID, that got canceled and I didn't want to postpone it another year.
00:30:33
Speaker
So when I won Gulf Coast 70.3 overall male and women, I was like, there's not much left to do in the age group ranks.
00:30:42
Speaker
So I took my pro card.
00:30:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:46
Speaker
What else do you have to do to prove it to yourself?
00:30:47
Speaker
Right?
00:30:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:49
Speaker
At that point, I was like, all right.
00:30:50
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:30:51
Speaker
That's incredible.
00:30:53
Speaker
When you think back to Orange Theory Grace, when you take stock of how far you've come, what do you think?
00:31:04
Speaker
What goes through your head?
00:31:06
Speaker
I mean, honestly, I am very proud of that.
00:31:10
Speaker
I've gotten a lot farther in the sport than I ever thought I could.
00:31:13
Speaker
And I think it's just a testament to putting time in and really developing yourself as an athlete, not rushing the process and making it really fun, I think leads to this kind of development long term, if you have that mindset.
00:31:29
Speaker
But I also, at this point, I don't want to be too proud because there's still a lot of work to be done and I don't want to just settle.
00:31:36
Speaker
So I'm still trying to find, I reach for that competitive grace from Orange Theory sometimes because it,
00:31:43
Speaker
those show up occasionally that I'm like, well, I'm already way ahead of where I got.
00:31:48
Speaker
Maybe I should just settle here, but I still think there's more to be had.
00:31:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:54
Speaker
I can understand that.
00:31:56
Speaker
You don't race against any slouches.
00:31:58
Speaker
Let's say that.
00:31:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:00
Speaker
Racing at London T100 two weeks ago was definitely a eye opener to like, okay, there's definitely a lot more work to be done.
00:32:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:08
Speaker
They're fast.
00:32:10
Speaker
So fast.
00:32:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:11
Speaker
It's amazing.
00:32:12
Speaker
What do you, what do you, I mean, sorry, just get to pull this thread for just another second.
00:32:16
Speaker
I'm going to toss it to April, but what do you learn?
00:32:19
Speaker
Let's take London T 100.
00:32:22
Speaker
What did you learn in that race?
00:32:26
Speaker
I mean, it was just the way the race was put on was a lot different for me and like the typical 70.3.
00:32:32
Speaker
Cause it's a midday start noon.
00:32:34
Speaker
So yeah,
00:32:35
Speaker
you're sleeping, you're eating is all kind of going to be different.
00:32:38
Speaker
So learning how to adjust with that, being in an environment that I'm not familiar with by myself because I traveled there alone.
00:32:45
Speaker
Usually I stay in Airbnb where I'm very specific about what I like to eat and cook, but I stayed in a hotel where I was having to Uber Eats everything.
00:32:54
Speaker
And then also like,
00:32:56
Speaker
One thing that I really liked that I learned is that most, I mean, those were the best women in the world and they're all very friendly and lighthearted and they're not like just as zoned in as you think that they would be.
00:33:09
Speaker
They're having fun with the sport, but they also care deeply.
00:33:14
Speaker
And you can tell that like getting in the ready room, everyone's kind of like, some people are very focused.
00:33:21
Speaker
Some people are just joking with each other and that's kind of
00:33:24
Speaker
Fun to see how people prep themselves to race.
00:33:27
Speaker
But I mean, I learned that there's no backing down.
00:33:31
Speaker
Like there's never a spot where you can relax in those races.
00:33:35
Speaker
especially with the nature of the, um, the swim being a two lap, what's it called?
00:33:44
Speaker
Australian exit, uh, Aussie exit, Aussie exit, you know, it's like you stand up and you're having to sprint so that you don't miss the next, the swim group.
00:33:54
Speaker
Cause they're all sprinting.
00:33:55
Speaker
And then on the bike, you have to be on that course specifically good technically and have a lot of nutrition because the bottles are flying out everywhere.
00:34:05
Speaker
And then, yeah, they're just so, their run form, it just, I don't know, I got lapped.
00:34:13
Speaker
So I got to see them just like float by me, it seemed.
00:34:16
Speaker
And I think one of the things I've been working on a lot is my run technique and becoming more efficient.
00:34:22
Speaker
So, you know, seeing them up close and how hard they're working, but almost it seems easy to
00:34:30
Speaker
is something that I'm trying to do and not to, I guess, relax more when I run and relaxing is efficient.
00:34:36
Speaker
So that was something to take note of.
00:34:39
Speaker
Grace, I got a follow up for that.
00:34:41
Speaker
Just thinking about what it must be like to be in the one in that space and to building the mindset to be able to perform at that level.
00:34:52
Speaker
you know, thinking about back to when you first started to now, how do you, how would you say you've built that competitive edge over time?
00:35:01
Speaker
And what are the kind of the things that you've done to help you reach that next level and continue to rise?
00:35:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:08
Speaker
So I'm very lucky and I have a best friend who went and got a degree in sports psychology.
00:35:15
Speaker
So I have been working with her and it's been great because as my best friend, she knows everything about me.
00:35:20
Speaker
So she knows what I'm lying, what I'm
00:35:25
Speaker
So she's been really helpful.
00:35:26
Speaker
And I started working with her in the middle of last year, I would say.
00:35:30
Speaker
And a lot of the challenges that I've faced with like 70.3 races is just staying focused and present and not going down these like horrible rabbit holes of, you know, bad thought.
00:35:43
Speaker
in the middle of the race, especially the bike portion for me, because it's a long bike.
00:35:47
Speaker
So finding ways to refocus to a more productive mindset has been really helpful.
00:35:54
Speaker
And also just having the confidence to know that, trying to say, think of the way that she phrased it, because it was really good, but it's,
00:36:02
Speaker
Going into races, I would tend to get really nervous because I wanted to mentally prep for everything that could possibly happen in the race.
00:36:11
Speaker
And that added to a lot, gave me a lot of stress.
00:36:14
Speaker
But what she highlighted was instead of trying to imagine every scenario, to just know that whatever does happen, you are prepared to handle it and that you can handle it.
00:36:26
Speaker
And so that's been really helpful in alleviating a lot of pre-race anxiety for me.
00:36:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's actually such a genius point because so many people can get caught up in the visualization of all the things that can go wrong.
00:36:41
Speaker
And it puts you in that stress state versus having the confidence to know like when something does go wrong, I have the tools to overcome it.
00:36:50
Speaker
I feel like that's a much better mentally prepared space than just thinking,
00:36:56
Speaker
What if this happens?
00:36:57
Speaker
What if this happens?
00:36:57
Speaker
Right?
00:36:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:59
Speaker
It's not just thinking worst case scenario all the time.
00:37:02
Speaker
Exactly.
00:37:03
Speaker
I really appreciate you sharing that.
00:37:05
Speaker
And what a smart move to bring your friend in.
00:37:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:11
Speaker
There are so many great quotes in that.
00:37:15
Speaker
I just, you've got so many great reels.
00:37:17
Speaker
We're going to get off of that.
00:37:18
Speaker
Perfect.
00:37:23
Speaker
This, you know, the, all the wisdom that you're showing, you know, you're sharing with us, you know, about, you know, how you're growing mindset wise, how you have grown competitive wise, you
00:37:36
Speaker
How, and this is kind of fun because we actually got introduced through one of your athletes, Callie Simon.
00:37:45
Speaker
And we met at the USA Triathlon Foundation gala at nationals.
00:37:51
Speaker
And, and she told me about you and I'm like, oh my gosh, I've got to, we have to talk to Grace.
00:37:57
Speaker
How does, how does what, how does your athlete, Grace, your, you know, what you go through, how does it show up in your coaching with your athletes?
00:38:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think obviously I'm very passionate about the sport.
00:38:10
Speaker
I've dedicated my life to it.
00:38:12
Speaker
I went and got a master's degree in exercise physiology so that I could better understand not only my performance and the sport, but also I knew that I wanted to coach down the line.
00:38:24
Speaker
And I think being an athlete,
00:38:26
Speaker
you understand what athletes go through.
00:38:29
Speaker
You understand not only like what the workouts feel like, but also what it feels like to be in the middle of a hard training block, how the stress of life can add to the training and affect the training and how taper you want to, you know, clean the entire house because you have all this energy that you're not exercising as much.
00:38:50
Speaker
So,
00:38:52
Speaker
I think having that experience helps me kind of almost predict what some athletes might do, you know, tell them like, Hey, it's taper.
00:39:00
Speaker
Let's not, you know, deep clean the house or, uh,
00:39:03
Speaker
you know, we're under a really heavy training load right now.
00:39:06
Speaker
Maybe let's not go on like a 10 mile hike on top of that.
00:39:09
Speaker
So getting that experience, I think has really helped.
00:39:14
Speaker
And also I've been really lucky to have great coaches.
00:39:17
Speaker
So understanding how they talk to me, how I respond to certain things they say, I can kind of share that with my athletes and make sure that I'm saying things in a way that I think is productive for them to understand and that they'll hear and appreciate more than just being, you know,
00:39:32
Speaker
told something without having real reason to say it, I guess.
00:39:39
Speaker
Did that answer that?
00:39:39
Speaker
Awesome.
00:39:41
Speaker
What's that?
00:39:42
Speaker
Did that answer the question fully?
00:39:44
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:39:44
Speaker
You nailed it.
00:39:45
Speaker
Yeah, it was excellent.
00:39:46
Speaker
Thank you.
00:39:47
Speaker
That's perfect.
00:39:48
Speaker
And I feel the same way.
00:39:49
Speaker
I think my training and racing helps me empathize with my athletes.
00:39:55
Speaker
And April's the same, right?
00:39:57
Speaker
We're both active, we're both competitive athletes too.
00:40:00
Speaker
So we, not at your level, of course, but...
00:40:03
Speaker
No, I think about that.
00:40:04
Speaker
Rich, you made such a good point there too, because throwing Rich into an Xterra race for the first time earlier this year, he now understands what it's like.
00:40:12
Speaker
For me, being an off-road triathlete.
00:40:15
Speaker
That was part of the reason too.
00:40:17
Speaker
That was part of the reason.
00:40:18
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:40:21
Speaker
I love that.
00:40:22
Speaker
I would also love to hear a little bit more about how you decided to make that switch.
00:40:27
Speaker
not a full switch.
00:40:28
Speaker
You're obviously competing in, in your own athletic journey, but what prompted you to decide to take the next, that next step, if you will, into being a coach?
00:40:41
Speaker
So I had coached my high school, the high school I swam at.
00:40:46
Speaker
I went back after graduating college and coached the swim team there, the varsity high school team.
00:40:52
Speaker
And I really loved that experience.
00:40:54
Speaker
It brought out a lot of like emotion in me.
00:40:56
Speaker
I could tell with certain athletes that I would kind of take under my wing when they would do really well at races, I would get a little teary eyed.
00:41:04
Speaker
And I was like, all right, if this is something that's like sparking this kind of emotion, it's probably something I should pursue.
00:41:11
Speaker
So once I graduated from grad school, I decided to officially be a coach for triathlon.
00:41:18
Speaker
And I would just take on, you know,
00:41:21
Speaker
whatever athletes were interested really.
00:41:24
Speaker
And now I've gotten very fortunate to have experienced a lot of variety of athletes.
00:41:31
Speaker
And I've also experienced that with my own racing.
00:41:34
Speaker
I kind of want to make sure that I give everyone the attention they deserve.
00:41:38
Speaker
So I do cap myself at 12 athletes at a time, 90% of the year, I can totally handle more than that.
00:41:45
Speaker
But when I'm training and racing, I,
00:41:47
Speaker
can tell that, you know, my attention does go elsewhere for a little bit.
00:41:50
Speaker
So I don't want to hinder their training and performance because of something unrelated to them.
00:41:59
Speaker
So yeah, that's how I've found that balance now.
00:42:01
Speaker
Um, and I do plan on making just like a social team, if you will, to where it's, you know, I have my 12 coach athletes and then other people that maybe have their own coach or just want to be part of a community can join that.
00:42:15
Speaker
And then, um,
00:42:17
Speaker
I'll obviously open up more athletes for one-on-one coaching once I'm done racing professionally.
00:42:23
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:42:24
Speaker
You're doing what we're doing.
00:42:25
Speaker
You're doing exactly what we're doing.
00:42:26
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:42:27
Speaker
Grit to greatness.
00:42:28
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:42:29
Speaker
Come on.
00:42:29
Speaker
You want to come, would be a part of grit to greatness?
00:42:33
Speaker
Give me the, how you figured it all out because I'm still learning how to do all this.
00:42:37
Speaker
Oh, I get it.
00:42:38
Speaker
The social media aspect is, is interesting.
00:42:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:42
Speaker
You should, yeah.
00:42:43
Speaker
You'll, you'll have to join one of our coach mastermind groups one of these days.
00:42:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:48
Speaker
Any tips?
00:42:49
Speaker
I'm, I'm happy to take them.
00:42:52
Speaker
Grace, I've got one more little spin on this question.
00:42:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:42:55
Speaker
I just am genuinely curious about this, uh, sitting in the seat of a coach, right.
00:43:01
Speaker
And talking and working with athletes.
00:43:03
Speaker
And like you said, you've had that, those emotional connections, you felt deeply invested is what I'm hearing.
00:43:09
Speaker
Have you ever been in a position where you've noticed where you're coaching someone else, but you're also coaching yourself?
00:43:16
Speaker
Like you have that, that realization.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:43:20
Speaker
And I, the name immediately popped up into my head where it's, it's someone who is following a similar journey to me.
00:43:27
Speaker
And I'm thinking about like how, what I need to say to her to help me also be better for her.
00:43:36
Speaker
And it's, yeah, it's been quite a journey to try to get the most out of her, which requires me to get the most out of myself as a coach.
00:43:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's one of the most unspoken benefits of being a coach is that it causes you, it forces you to grow and develop and reflect back at what, like, this sounds pretty familiar.
00:43:58
Speaker
And I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, but I sometimes say...
00:44:06
Speaker
Being a coach, I imagine is kind of like being a parent where I've learned so much about like you can guide these people, but you can't control them.
00:44:14
Speaker
So it's about how can I guide them in the best way possible and say something that makes them have the buy-in and like understand why they're doing what they're doing.
00:44:24
Speaker
So it's a lot of learning or trying to figure out good communication patterns for each individual person, which has been quite a task.
00:44:33
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:44:34
Speaker
Well said.
00:44:35
Speaker
And in some cases have that beginner mindset to really reset yourself because it's hard to know what they don't know.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:44:44
Speaker
Because we don't know how much we know.
00:44:48
Speaker
So sometimes I don't tell people things assuming that they know.
00:44:52
Speaker
And then I'm like, I should have told them that.
00:44:54
Speaker
And they totally blew up in a workout.
00:44:58
Speaker
Yep.
00:44:59
Speaker
Been there too.
00:45:00
Speaker
Feel that.
00:45:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:02
Speaker
All right, so we're going to shift gears.
00:45:04
Speaker
Let's just fast forward here.
00:45:06
Speaker
Let's just kind of go current year racing.
00:45:09
Speaker
Take us, my understanding, I'm going to read out these highlights.
00:45:12
Speaker
Tell me if we get this right.
00:45:13
Speaker
Guide them in the best way possible and say something that makes them have the buy-in.
00:45:17
Speaker
Third place, Eagleman 70.3.
00:45:18
Speaker
Fourth place, Boise 70.3.
00:45:19
Speaker
Third place, 70.3 Pennsylvania.
00:45:20
Speaker
And sixth place, Oceanside, just this year.
00:45:22
Speaker
And plus PTO.
00:45:31
Speaker
And St.
00:45:31
Speaker
Anthony's.
00:45:32
Speaker
I don't know if you know that race.
00:45:34
Speaker
Yeah, we do know St.
00:45:36
Speaker
Anthony's.
00:45:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:38
Speaker
And how did you play since St.
00:45:39
Speaker
Anthony's?
00:45:40
Speaker
I got first.
00:45:41
Speaker
Of course.
00:45:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:42
Speaker
So.
00:45:43
Speaker
Well, not of course, but.
00:45:44
Speaker
No, I'm just having fun here.
00:45:49
Speaker
But tell us, I mean, do you feel like this is a peaking year for you?
00:45:55
Speaker
Like, where do you, like, if you were to, like, you know, talk, think about your athletic journey as you've been using,
00:46:01
Speaker
the term, where are you?
00:46:03
Speaker
Do you feel like in the athletic journey, do you feel like you're like close to, you know, like, you know, I don't know what, what's, I still feel like you're excelling.
00:46:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:15
Speaker
I think I spent the last two years feeling like I plateaued and I just pushed through.
00:46:20
Speaker
And now those consistent years of training, even though feeling like I wasn't really improving are now paying off.
00:46:28
Speaker
Wow.
00:46:29
Speaker
So I think I'm,
00:46:30
Speaker
I wouldn't say I'm peaking.
00:46:31
Speaker
I think this has been like a breakthrough year.
00:46:37
Speaker
But even then, I still think it's on the trajectory that I expected.
00:46:43
Speaker
I consider a breakthrough just like a, whoa, that was crazy performance.
00:46:47
Speaker
And I think this is within reach of what I expected I could do if I had a good year.
00:46:52
Speaker
And I'm hoping to just keep building upon that.
00:46:55
Speaker
So LA 2028 in your sights?
00:47:01
Speaker
I mean, if the T100 gets a race in there, I mean, that would be the only opportunity, but I don't do draft legal.
00:47:10
Speaker
I don't have the foot speed for that.
00:47:13
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:47:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:47:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:15
Speaker
Wouldn't that be cool though if T100 came out to LA during that timeframe?
00:47:20
Speaker
Yeah, they're hoping to make a push, but I don't know.
00:47:23
Speaker
I feel like that's quite a process.
00:47:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:27
Speaker
So thinking about behind the scenes here, Grace, because I know I'm sure you would agree that you didn't get here by yourself, right?
00:47:35
Speaker
You've had a lot of people in your corner.
00:47:37
Speaker
You've had advisors, your sports psychologist, a.k.a.
00:47:41
Speaker
good friend.
00:47:42
Speaker
I mean, that's just one of them.
00:47:45
Speaker
I would love to know who are the key people and supporters behind your success?
00:47:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:52
Speaker
So I've had my coach for four years and I've, I think having a relationship for that long and working with someone that closely in a sport is very valuable.
00:48:02
Speaker
Obviously don't stay in a coaching relationship if it's not good, but I've been very fortunate to have a very good coaching relationship.
00:48:08
Speaker
So I think that's been very beneficial.
00:48:11
Speaker
He's really developed me for the longterm and not just
00:48:16
Speaker
a short-term mindset of pushing really intense workouts the first year to get immediate results and buff his ego.
00:48:23
Speaker
It's really been about progressing me in a way that doesn't destroy any kind of long-term health.
00:48:30
Speaker
So he's been a major person behind the scenes.
00:48:35
Speaker
And then
00:48:36
Speaker
Obviously, friends and family, my fiancee, have been there for this since the beginning.
00:48:42
Speaker
So that's been super helpful.
00:48:44
Speaker
And I really, one of the reasons I love the sport is because I like training with people.
00:48:50
Speaker
So a lot of the training buddies that I've had over the years have helped elevate my performance, but also made me want to continue training because it's a lot more fun that way.
00:49:04
Speaker
And then, yeah, the people on my team.
00:49:07
Speaker
Besides my coach though, I would say, yeah, my friend who is the mental performance coach, I've been working with a nutritionist or a dietitian this year, which has been helpful.
00:49:19
Speaker
Obviously my sponsors play a huge role in me being able to get to races, to perform well, get good gear, all that stuff has been very helpful.
00:49:31
Speaker
So it's definitely a whole team effort.
00:49:34
Speaker
Let me ask one more little question with this too, because you said something that was kind of never, I've never thought about it this way, but you had said that your coach in that first year, when you turned pro,
00:49:46
Speaker
I have a feeling just hearing that there might be like this culture around full throttle.
00:49:52
Speaker
Now you're a pro.
00:49:52
Speaker
You've got to make your mark, right?
00:49:56
Speaker
How, how do you feel like you, both of you navigated those waters?
00:50:00
Speaker
You said that he was very measured to get you to where you needed to be to continue.
00:50:06
Speaker
I feel like that is one of those real delicate dances.
00:50:08
Speaker
Do you, what was that like for you?
00:50:11
Speaker
Yeah, honestly, at the time, I had no idea.
00:50:13
Speaker
But like, now that I've seen the progression of the workouts and how it's changed after four years, I have a deeper understanding of why I was doing what I was doing four years ago, so I could handle what I'm doing now.
00:50:25
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:50:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:27
Speaker
So, you know, I am someone who...
00:50:31
Speaker
believes that to be a successful athlete, you do kind of have to have buy-in for your coach's workouts.
00:50:37
Speaker
So when I hired him as my coach, I was like, I have buy-in.
00:50:41
Speaker
I'll trust what you're giving me.
00:50:43
Speaker
And if I have questions, I'll ask so I can better understand.
00:50:46
Speaker
But the questions I would ask him initially, the way he responded just gave me a good sense of feeling like I was supported and that he was here for long-term growth.
00:50:58
Speaker
development and not damaging long-term health just to get results.
00:51:03
Speaker
You know, and Grace, by the way, if you have sponsors that you want to give a shout out to, don't be shy.
00:51:09
Speaker
You can just shout out their name.
00:51:13
Speaker
So when we wrote this, who are, who are some of your sponsors that you want to recognize?
00:51:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:18
Speaker
So I was very lucky.
00:51:20
Speaker
And in 2017, I was accepted to be on an elite age group team called the All Three Sports Elite Team.
00:51:26
Speaker
And I
00:51:27
Speaker
You know, at the time, I just thought this was like normal, but I got like a bike, I got a bunch of gear, a helmet, some shoes, nutrition, all this stuff as an age grouper.
00:51:38
Speaker
And so when I turned pro, I was still living in Atlanta.
00:51:43
Speaker
So I worked out a contract with them and they've been with me ever since.
00:51:47
Speaker
So this will literally be my, I guess this is my eighth year with them.
00:51:52
Speaker
And so All3Sports has been great.
00:51:54
Speaker
And I think now they're actually merging with another store called Podium Multisport.
00:51:59
Speaker
So it might be Podium Multisport now.
00:52:02
Speaker
And then Varlow, I've been working with them for three years.
00:52:04
Speaker
They're an apparel company.
00:52:06
Speaker
Great.
00:52:06
Speaker
Saj is the owner.
00:52:07
Speaker
He's one of the just nicest persons, people I've ever met.
00:52:13
Speaker
And then two people I brought on this year, which are local.
00:52:16
Speaker
I love working with local companies just because you get that
00:52:20
Speaker
better, more meaningful relationship, I think.
00:52:24
Speaker
So I've been working with zone physical therapy and run in, which is a shoe store and Greenville, South Carolina.
00:52:31
Speaker
Awesome.
00:52:33
Speaker
So, you know, we kind of already, I mean, you kind of talked about, you know, your training program doesn't overload you, but talk about other things you might be doing to avoid injury and keep your longevity in the sport.
00:52:49
Speaker
Yeah, so I had a, and still kind of do, have a huge fear of injury, which actually I think is good and bad.
00:52:58
Speaker
Good because I listen to my body and when I feel things, I respond, but also bad because when I feel things, I respond by slowing down and sometimes that would happen in a race and...
00:53:09
Speaker
One of the things I've worked with my sports psychologist with is that pain does not equal injury.
00:53:15
Speaker
It just means that my body's trying to tell me something.
00:53:18
Speaker
And after the run, I can just give it that area a little extra love or bringing on my physical therapist to my team has been super helpful because I know that if something happens, I can...
00:53:30
Speaker
talk to him pretty much immediately and he'll get me in and we'll figure it out so that's been really helpful with managing potential aches and pains and potential injuries but along with that i've realized how important recovery is learned that in grad school and then a lot of podcasts i've listened to just
00:53:51
Speaker
trying to sleep eight hours at least a night.
00:53:54
Speaker
Really good about nutrition.
00:53:55
Speaker
I feel like there's so much coming out now about like red S. A lot of people suffering from stress fractures right now.
00:54:03
Speaker
And I'm knock on wood, very fortunate to say I've never had either of those issues.
00:54:08
Speaker
So, you know, I eat a lot.
00:54:12
Speaker
I like...
00:54:14
Speaker
Yeah, I like cooking my own food.
00:54:16
Speaker
I like to eat throughout the day.
00:54:20
Speaker
And I think that's been very helpful to managing a higher training load.
00:54:26
Speaker
And then, of course, like stress management.
00:54:28
Speaker
Obviously, full time pros, we don't have nearly the amount of stress as people with full time jobs and a bunch of little kids running around probably have.
00:54:38
Speaker
So maybe one day, but for now, I'm relatively low stress.
00:54:46
Speaker
I, um, I'm sorry, Rich, we got to do the cut here a little bit.
00:54:50
Speaker
I got, I was thinking about another question, but I could talk to you all day, Grace.
00:54:55
Speaker
I'm sorry.
00:54:55
Speaker
I'm going to give you my last question.
00:54:57
Speaker
So I'm going to bring this in.
00:54:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:00
Speaker
Awesome.
00:55:00
Speaker
Grace, thank you for sharing that with us.
00:55:02
Speaker
I have one more question for you and I would love to know what are your goals for the rest of the 2025 season and beyond?
00:55:11
Speaker
Yeah, so this season is kind of coming to an end soon.
00:55:15
Speaker
I'm racing Santa Cruz next weekend and then Augusta at the end of September.
00:55:22
Speaker
And then that is it.
00:55:23
Speaker
I decided to not do Worlds this year.
00:55:26
Speaker
I am planning a wedding, which is November 15th.
00:55:30
Speaker
And I did make it that day just in case I wanted to do Worlds, which was the weekend before.
00:55:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:38
Speaker
but I've decided that that's probably not a good idea.
00:55:40
Speaker
And my family is very happy that I decided to not do it.
00:55:43
Speaker
So no, it's a very exciting year.
00:55:46
Speaker
And I'm excited that I kind of stacked the first half of my year, had a good first half of the year.
00:55:52
Speaker
So I think that worked out well.
00:55:55
Speaker
And then next year, I kind of plan on doing the same thing I did this year.
00:55:58
Speaker
I really enjoyed just racing pretty much all the domestic 70.3s with one international travel a year.
00:56:06
Speaker
That's kind of,
00:56:07
Speaker
how much I can handle at this point as a mid thirties girl.
00:56:12
Speaker
Travel is not my forte anymore.
00:56:16
Speaker
I feel that in my bones.
00:56:17
Speaker
I'm not a big fan of travel either.
00:56:19
Speaker
Grace.
00:56:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:20
Speaker
Especially.
00:56:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:24
Speaker
Just with the way that like travels going and how flights are getting canceled and delayed.
00:56:29
Speaker
It's just not fun.
00:56:30
Speaker
It's not reliable anymore.
00:56:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:34
Speaker
That's stress.
00:56:35
Speaker
That's a lot of stress.
00:56:36
Speaker
I want to say congratulations on your engagement and your upcoming wedding.
00:56:40
Speaker
That is an amazing back half of your season right there.
00:56:44
Speaker
Thank you.
00:56:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:46
Speaker
That's wonderful.
00:56:47
Speaker
Thank you.
00:56:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:48
Speaker
I hope you're able to really just decompress and enjoy it.
00:56:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:54
Speaker
And then we can't wait to see what you have in store for, for next year.
00:56:57
Speaker
What do you have in store for next year?
00:57:00
Speaker
Well, I don't think the Ironman 70.3 schedule comes out until like October-ish.
00:57:06
Speaker
So it's kind of just up to them.
00:57:08
Speaker
I'll decide my year next year.
00:57:11
Speaker
I'll do probably St.
00:57:12
Speaker
Anthony's again, which is in April.
00:57:14
Speaker
I love that race.
00:57:15
Speaker
It's where I qualify.
00:57:17
Speaker
It's a bucket list race for sure.
00:57:19
Speaker
That's such an awesome venue.
00:57:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's warm.
00:57:23
Speaker
It's coming off of winter.
00:57:25
Speaker
It's completely flat and fast.
00:57:27
Speaker
And they just put on such a good race.
00:57:29
Speaker
And it's pretty much the only...
00:57:31
Speaker
Olympic distance, non-draft legal pro race left in the United States.
00:57:35
Speaker
That's great.
00:57:37
Speaker
Well, congratulations.
00:57:38
Speaker
Good luck.
00:57:39
Speaker
Thank you for being with us.
00:57:40
Speaker
This has been amazing.
00:57:42
Speaker
We will be putting this out this weekend and, uh, you know, we just really appreciate it.
00:57:46
Speaker
I'm glad we got the opportunity to get introduced, uh, via Cali.
00:57:49
Speaker
So.
00:57:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:50
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:57:50
Speaker
I'm happy to come on and chat.
00:57:57
Speaker
All right.
00:57:59
Speaker
So, you know, all of the quotes that we're going to be pulling off of this from Grace, she just had so much wisdom to share during this interview.
00:58:07
Speaker
I think she like thinks like we do, you know,
00:58:10
Speaker
Yeah, a very even keel, although I'm not even keel at all, man.
00:58:14
Speaker
I ride that roller coaster.
00:58:16
Speaker
But no, for real, I love that she was willing to share kind of behind the curtain as far as the mental strategies that she's learned, the reflection that she's had as both an athlete and a coach.
00:58:29
Speaker
I grew a lot just listening, listening from her and gaining some some of those gems of wisdom, like you said.
00:58:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:37
Speaker
She, and she, you're right.
00:58:38
Speaker
She does.
00:58:38
Speaker
She seems to be very centered in her, you know, she, she seems to know what she wants and what she needs and she takes really good care of herself and she, uh, yeah, she's a, she's a force.
00:58:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:55
Speaker
And congrats again to her and her, uh, fiance on their, um, their, their engagement and their wedding.
00:59:01
Speaker
That's so great.
00:59:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:03
Speaker
Very exciting.
00:59:05
Speaker
All right.
00:59:05
Speaker
Well, thanks again, Grace.
00:59:06
Speaker
That was a blast.
00:59:07
Speaker
We look forward to following you and maybe having you back on the show in the future.
00:59:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:59:12
Speaker
Let's talk about our get gritty tip for the week.
00:59:14
Speaker
And the reason why I picked this one, Rich, is I've had a couple of conversations in the last couple of weeks about this topic with some of my athletes and it's come up in conversation as far as like how they're feeling and
00:59:27
Speaker
how their adaptation is going.
00:59:31
Speaker
And sometimes what I've learned, not only as a coach, but as an athlete, it's important to take a step back, right?
00:59:39
Speaker
Take a step back and get that full picture.
00:59:40
Speaker
So the focus of today's Get Gritty Tip is one step back to take three steps forward.
00:59:47
Speaker
And as you know, you've heard the quip, I took one step forward and it caused me to take three steps back with whatever, with what you name it, whether it's your training, your nutrition, or your racing.
00:59:59
Speaker
But what exactly is going on?
01:00:02
Speaker
Maybe it's time to reverse those steps.
01:00:05
Speaker
So this week, I want our listeners to take stock of the root cause.
01:00:10
Speaker
A lot of the things that we experience, such as setbacks, are often symptomatic.
01:00:16
Speaker
of a larger issue that we might not be fully aware of or conscious of.
01:00:21
Speaker
And honestly, that's why I love being a coach.
01:00:24
Speaker
It's because we get the opportunity to hold up that mirror for our athletes and show them what they might not be seeing.
01:00:30
Speaker
So I want to do that with you, Coach Rich, as we talk about reflection.
01:00:36
Speaker
And I want to ask you, can you remember a time when you had to reflect on and take a step back from or not?
01:00:45
Speaker
or an athlete experience that you had where you as a coach had to take that step back to really look at and see if you could find a root cause.
01:00:54
Speaker
Almost every race, almost every week, you know, there's something like that.
01:00:58
Speaker
Honestly.
01:00:59
Speaker
I mean, I mean, if you're, we, we, we, I mean, that's part of the reason for the coaching weekly session is to step back and,
01:01:11
Speaker
you know, once a week and take a look at the bigger picture and think about, you know, what are the things that you should be like really take stock of how things are going and, and where are you in the big picture?
01:01:25
Speaker
It's that it's sort of that OODA loop, right?
01:01:27
Speaker
The observe, orient, decide, enact, right?
01:01:31
Speaker
This is your moment to observe and orient, you know, if you think about it that way.
01:01:37
Speaker
Not get caught in that minutia either.
01:01:38
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:39
Speaker
Yeah, it shouldn't be a once in a while thing that you do this.
01:01:43
Speaker
It should be a, you know, we should program this into your, you know, into your training, you know, take a monthly reflection, if not a weekly reflection.
01:01:51
Speaker
And at the longest, a quarterly reflection.
01:01:56
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:56
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:57
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:57
Speaker
And if you ever want to, like, you know, we should actually create a downloadable for this someday, April.
01:02:03
Speaker
But yeah, if, if you want to dive into this, we encourage you to reach out.
01:02:07
Speaker
But here are some questions that we would really like you to be thinking about as you reflect.
01:02:12
Speaker
So,
01:02:13
Speaker
Think about what are your current habits that might be hindering your ability to get quality sleep, for example.
01:02:20
Speaker
What has been your diet over the last three days?
01:02:25
Speaker
Do your food and drink choices support your goals?
01:02:28
Speaker
What emotions or thoughts consistently come up if you hit a setback?
01:02:33
Speaker
In what ways could your expectations be adding unnecessary pressure or stress?
01:02:40
Speaker
And what part of your training recovery or mindset might be getting neglected and needs more attention?
01:02:50
Speaker
Yeah, I feel that deep as far as how you might just be going through the routine, right?
01:02:56
Speaker
And it feels good in the moment to have that extra portion of macaroni and cheese, right?
01:03:03
Speaker
Or get that drink that is not athletic brewing.
01:03:08
Speaker
That's something else in there.
01:03:10
Speaker
Yeah, it might feel good, but are you actually taking the steps to really reflect on the habits, the thoughts, the people that
01:03:19
Speaker
that you're surrounding yourself with, right?
01:03:22
Speaker
That are either helping you towards your goal or, or potentially holding you back.
01:03:27
Speaker
So I think this is so important.
01:03:29
Speaker
I love these questions and I want to challenge our listeners to take stock.
01:03:33
Speaker
You can pick one question.
01:03:35
Speaker
You can do all five.
01:03:36
Speaker
We just want to, we want to encourage you to take some time to reflect and setbacks aren't just obstacles.
01:03:43
Speaker
They are invitations.
01:03:44
Speaker
Right?
01:03:45
Speaker
They're invitations to take time to pause, to reflect, reset, and move forward with more awareness.
01:03:52
Speaker
So take the time this week to reflect.
01:03:55
Speaker
And we hope that you find that taking a step back may just be the launchpad you need for your next big leap.
01:04:01
Speaker
That's awesome.
01:04:02
Speaker
April.
01:04:04
Speaker
It's amazing.
01:04:04
Speaker
What a great, uh, grit, gritty tip.
01:04:06
Speaker
And speaking of putting in the work this week's featured workout is the long ride or stamina ride.
01:04:13
Speaker
This is a, this is a monster.
01:04:15
Speaker
Sometimes this workout goes out to Caroline and Stephanie and also to Paul who are all getting well to, to the three of them that are doing Ironman California, but specifically to Caroline and Stephanie who are doing
01:04:30
Speaker
the, uh, the buff classic century next weekend.
01:04:35
Speaker
Uh, they've got, uh, another big weekend of training.
01:04:38
Speaker
In fact, I'm actually meeting them out at Chatfield tomorrow morning to do an open water swim before they do their long ride and then a long run and they've got a long ride on Sunday.
01:04:48
Speaker
So lots going on for those two, uh, those two ladies.
01:04:52
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, we're rooting for you guys.
01:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, and I also did my own version of the stamina ride on Monday because I had a day off.
01:05:00
Speaker
We got an earned free day from the superintendent at the Air Force Academy.
01:05:05
Speaker
So I took advantage of that by going out to Cannon City to try my hand at riding stage two of Pikes Peak Apex in preparation for a long endurance mountain bike ride I have later in September.
01:05:19
Speaker
Goodness gracious, Rich.
01:05:22
Speaker
This was freaking hard.
01:05:25
Speaker
It was a great test of my stamina and my mental acuity and just fortitude to stay in it without bucking myself off that bike, especially when it started to just torrential downpour in the middle of it and all the trails turned to sheer mud.
01:05:44
Speaker
But yeah, there were some incredible trails, including the aptly named Shiv.
01:05:50
Speaker
There was a part of this ride, Rich, where I thought I was like a Shiv distance away from falling off the side of the cliff.
01:05:57
Speaker
There was a trail called Redemption.
01:06:00
Speaker
I didn't feel like I redeemed myself at all on this ride.
01:06:04
Speaker
And then there was the Great Escape Trail.
01:06:06
Speaker
So one thing I love about mountain biking is they come up with these saucy names for these different portions of trails.
01:06:13
Speaker
And it was just kind of a giggle fest in that regard where I could get it at least on that day.
01:06:20
Speaker
I ended up doing four hours of
01:06:23
Speaker
out there with some serious weather.
01:06:26
Speaker
And I'm, I'm really proud of myself for handling the, the mental toughness of that.
01:06:32
Speaker
Well, that's awesome.
01:06:33
Speaker
And it is mentally tough.
01:06:34
Speaker
And especially with some of the climbing that you've got to do in that.
01:06:38
Speaker
I mean, it's just incredible.
01:06:39
Speaker
Oh, Lord.
01:06:40
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:41
Speaker
Brutal.
01:06:42
Speaker
Which really is, you know, you doing that kind of a course for a stamina ride is really remarkable because it's a really difficult thing to do.
01:06:51
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:53
Speaker
You know, and if you think about like the structure of this, if you were to like, you know, like we're going to talk through the structure of this workout here in the next, in the next.
01:07:01
Speaker
Bit here, you know, it's much easier to do on a trainer, but when you get close to races, you're trying to do a lot of race specifics.
01:07:08
Speaker
So you're trying to do your best to approximate this in the real world, which, you know, which having a nice steady hill climb, uh, not quite steady, I guess in this case, but, um,
01:07:19
Speaker
but having a steady climb can really help you.
01:07:21
Speaker
So you'll start out with a warmup, 10 minutes, you know, in zone two, doing some spin-ups, take some 30 second spin-ups every, you know, every minute for three minutes, do some, a couple of zone four, you know, one minute efforts to get the anaerobic system firing, get the lactate clearing system firing.
01:07:41
Speaker
And then your main set is,
01:07:43
Speaker
three by, or could be two by, or, you know, four by depending on your fitness level.
01:07:48
Speaker
But in this case, we're going to use a three by 12 minutes at zone four with five minutes of recovery.
01:07:55
Speaker
And then one by 10 minutes in zone two, and then 10 by 10 minutes in zone three with two minutes of recovery, keeping all recover, keeping all recoveries and the balance of time in zone two.
01:08:09
Speaker
Yes.
01:08:10
Speaker
So here's the key.
01:08:11
Speaker
When you're in those longer stamina sessions, you want to stay in your race position as much as possible.
01:08:17
Speaker
As if you're racing, you can sit up and stretch if you need to, then get back down and dial in.
01:08:22
Speaker
We want you to keep your cadence steady zone two and zone three efforts at 90 plus RPMs and zone four efforts at 80.
01:08:30
Speaker
And remember, aim to make the last repeat as strong as the first.
01:08:35
Speaker
So what do you think, Rich?
01:08:36
Speaker
Anything else you want to add?
01:08:38
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:08:38
Speaker
The other thing is make sure that you are paying attention to hydrating and nutrition.
01:08:46
Speaker
You should be doing it like it's your job.
01:08:49
Speaker
If you don't already have a plan for the timing for how much you need to be taking in an hour,
01:08:55
Speaker
or, you know, and at what intensities and at what temperatures, you know, you really should spend some time doing that.
01:09:01
Speaker
That's a whole nother, you know, segment.
01:09:04
Speaker
Maybe that becomes something we follow up on next week, April is, you know, things like doing a sweat test to know, you know, when you're riding at these intensities, what's your sweat rate?
01:09:13
Speaker
How much do you need to be replacing?
01:09:15
Speaker
How much of that, how much, you know, sodium do you need or electrolytes do you need depending on your, you
01:09:22
Speaker
sweat your sodium concentration in your sweat and how much fueling do you need to be doing?
01:09:27
Speaker
What are you fueling with?
01:09:29
Speaker
Are you taking in enough regularly enough so that you don't bonk or run out of, you know, run out of glycogen?
01:09:37
Speaker
Yeah, good points all around.
01:09:38
Speaker
The stamina ride especially is a really great way to test all of those things without the pressure of racing.
01:09:46
Speaker
But just like Rich said, you want to come in with a game plan and you want to tweak as necessary so that you're dialed in for when you need to put that performance on.
01:09:57
Speaker
Okay, Rich!
01:09:59
Speaker
We're all waiting for.
01:10:00
Speaker
Yeah, we are at that point.
01:10:04
Speaker
It is time for a little fall fun.
01:10:07
Speaker
I'm calling this segment pumpkin spice or power meters.
01:10:11
Speaker
And Rich, here's how it works.
01:10:14
Speaker
I'm going to throw out a fall theme scenario and we'll decide if it's a treat, something that we totally embrace like a pumpkin spice latte or a trick, something better left behind in the transition area.
01:10:26
Speaker
Are you ready?
01:10:27
Speaker
I'm ready.
01:10:30
Speaker
Keep it on the pumpkin spice theme or the PSL.
01:10:34
Speaker
PSL as a recovery drink.
01:10:36
Speaker
Is this a trick or treat?
01:10:38
Speaker
Treat.
01:10:38
Speaker
100%.
01:10:38
Speaker
Tell me more.
01:10:43
Speaker
Oh, well, first of all, I'm a coffee drinker.
01:10:50
Speaker
And I will have a thermos of coffee when I go to a race, only drink the first half on the way to the race, and then I'll drink the other half on the way home as my recovery.
01:11:02
Speaker
Oh, I love that.
01:11:03
Speaker
So this, this, this time I'm just going to do a half, half a thermos and I'm going to stop at Starbucks on the way home and get my pumpkin spice latte after my race.
01:11:12
Speaker
So total treat treating myself after my race or my hard workout.
01:11:17
Speaker
Good choice.
01:11:18
Speaker
Good choices all around.
01:11:21
Speaker
Okay.
01:11:22
Speaker
Number two, running through piles of crunchy leaves during your brick run trick or treat.
01:11:28
Speaker
Okay.
01:11:29
Speaker
Running through a pile of crunchy leaves, I actually think is kind of fun.
01:11:33
Speaker
I don't know.
01:11:34
Speaker
It's just kind of, you know, I don't know, fall, but I will say riding through leaves in the fall, like when you're like riding your bike and there's leaves on the ground, like in the bike lane, it's
01:11:48
Speaker
That terrifies me because you cannot, at speed, you cannot tell the difference between a leaf and a rock, a wet leaf and a rock.
01:11:57
Speaker
And I've seen, I've had a friend hit one of those, like going through a patch of, of what looked like patches of leaves and there was a rock in there and you just couldn't see it.
01:12:07
Speaker
And it was a crash.
01:12:10
Speaker
It was not good.
01:12:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's such a good point.
01:12:14
Speaker
I'm not a fan of riding through any kind of debris like that.
01:12:17
Speaker
Plus, I've got a serious fear of snakes now after the multiple snake encounters I've had, Rich.
01:12:23
Speaker
So riding through a mysterious pile of leaves or what looks like a pile of leaves scares me a little bit too.
01:12:32
Speaker
Or even running through them because you don't know what's in there.
01:12:35
Speaker
That's a very valid point.
01:12:36
Speaker
So yeah, that's a trick for me too.
01:12:38
Speaker
Okay.
01:12:40
Speaker
All right, number three, racing in a Halloween-themed tri-kit.
01:12:45
Speaker
Trick or treat.
01:12:46
Speaker
I'm going to go with trick.
01:12:48
Speaker
And here's my thing.
01:12:49
Speaker
I mean, I know you're saying it's a Halloween-themed tri-kit, but I can't help imagining it being somewhat of a costume, too.
01:12:57
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:12:58
Speaker
And, you know, if you've ever, and we've got the, it's fun.
01:13:00
Speaker
We've got the October fast triathlon coming up here next month.
01:13:03
Speaker
And one of the things that people do is they dress up in costume for this triathlon, not for the swim, of course, but they'll wear a costume on the bike and on the run.
01:13:13
Speaker
And one year I did a hot dog.
01:13:15
Speaker
I was a hot dog running hot dog.
01:13:18
Speaker
And that fricking that, that was like a Halloween costume, hot dog costume.
01:13:24
Speaker
That thing was hot as hell.
01:13:25
Speaker
Yeah.
01:13:26
Speaker
I thought I was going to.
01:13:27
Speaker
You're roasting a roasting dog.
01:13:29
Speaker
You're a hot dog.
01:13:31
Speaker
I mean, I got a lot of laughs, but I, I paid for it.
01:13:36
Speaker
I'm going with trick.
01:13:38
Speaker
Okay.
01:13:38
Speaker
All right.
01:13:39
Speaker
I see your logic.
01:13:40
Speaker
I see your logic.
01:13:41
Speaker
When I think of this, I do think of the kit.
01:13:44
Speaker
And the only reason why I think of the kit is because I used to, when I was back in my powerlifting days, people would wear all kinds of weird themed powerlifting kits.
01:13:53
Speaker
Yeah.
01:13:55
Speaker
So you'd have people up there dressed as Santa in their kit.
01:13:59
Speaker
And you'd have people with like power here, like superhero kits and stuff like that.
01:14:04
Speaker
So maybe I don't know if I could do it.
01:14:08
Speaker
I actually one of my athletes that I coach for her first powerlifting meet, she wore a powerlifting kit that had a dragon on it.
01:14:16
Speaker
I called her Magic Markham.
01:14:18
Speaker
So I'm going to shout her out, Amber.
01:14:21
Speaker
And she she was like this, like mythical creature.
01:14:25
Speaker
So I have fond memories of those types of things, but me, myself wearing it, I don't think I could do it.
01:14:30
Speaker
I don't think I have the guts to do it.
01:14:32
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:32
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:33
Speaker
I'm going to go with trick.
01:14:34
Speaker
Cool.
01:14:35
Speaker
All right.
01:14:36
Speaker
Hey, I like this.
01:14:36
Speaker
We're seeing pretty eye to eye here.
01:14:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:40
Speaker
Simpatico.
01:14:41
Speaker
Okay.
01:14:41
Speaker
Number four.
01:14:42
Speaker
Cool fall temps on race morning followed by a freezing cold swim start.
01:14:46
Speaker
Trick or treat.
01:14:47
Speaker
Ooh.
01:14:48
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:49
Speaker
Hmm.
01:14:50
Speaker
Trick for me.
01:14:52
Speaker
I, you know, I am not a cold, cold water fan.
01:14:57
Speaker
So getting cold, I've been cold getting into a cold water.
01:15:01
Speaker
We did a race up in Avon years ago.
01:15:04
Speaker
Ooh, I thought I was not going to make it through T1.
01:15:09
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, I can.
01:15:11
Speaker
I can understand that.
01:15:13
Speaker
I'm going to say treat all the way because this is my this is my superpower.
01:15:20
Speaker
I can swim in really cold water and not like feel completely discombobulated.
01:15:25
Speaker
So I think I'd have an advantage over those who who don't.
01:15:29
Speaker
Yeah.
01:15:30
Speaker
Who.
01:15:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:15:31
Speaker
Who struggle with it.
01:15:32
Speaker
Right.
01:15:32
Speaker
So, yeah.
01:15:33
Speaker
So this is a treat for me.
01:15:34
Speaker
I'll take cool fall temps and to a cold swim all day.
01:15:40
Speaker
Okay.
01:15:40
Speaker
My last one for you, Rich.
01:15:42
Speaker
Post-race pumpkin pie instead of the usual banana, trick or treat?
01:15:49
Speaker
I'm going to go with trick.
01:15:51
Speaker
I don't know if I, I don't know.
01:15:53
Speaker
I mean, I love pumpkin pie.
01:15:54
Speaker
I'm just trying to imagine like right after a race.
01:15:57
Speaker
I mean, I guess, I mean, you're eating, I mean, I ate that pizza, you know, I don't know.
01:16:04
Speaker
No, I really love pumpkin pie, but I'm actually going to go with trick and I'm just going to stick with the banana for now.
01:16:12
Speaker
Shame on you.
01:16:13
Speaker
Oh, we were so close, Rich, and then you just went freaking right off the rails.
01:16:22
Speaker
I'm going pumpkin pie head first.
01:16:24
Speaker
Even better would be sweet potato pie.
01:16:26
Speaker
That is my favorite pie.
01:16:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's the goods right there.
01:16:31
Speaker
So, yeah, that's a treat for me all the way.
01:16:34
Speaker
And if you're listening and you want to give me a gift, yeah, that's...
01:16:40
Speaker
There's a great restaurant.
01:16:41
Speaker
I think it's called Life Kitchen or something like that.
01:16:43
Speaker
They've got an amazing, I think it's called Squash Pie, but it's actually a pumpkin pie.
01:16:50
Speaker
Squash Pie.
01:16:50
Speaker
Ooh.
01:16:51
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:51
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:52
Speaker
I don't know.
01:16:52
Speaker
Anyway.
01:16:53
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:53
Speaker
That sounds so good.
01:16:54
Speaker
I would eat it all day.
01:16:56
Speaker
All right.
01:16:57
Speaker
I got a quick fire two for you, just real quick.
01:17:01
Speaker
Daylight Savings Run, I want you to think Midnight Sun, like in Alaska, or a Spooky Night Ride.
01:17:09
Speaker
Which one would you rather have?
01:17:10
Speaker
Daylight Savings Run.
01:17:12
Speaker
Okay.
01:17:13
Speaker
Love that.
01:17:14
Speaker
I've done those.
Alaska's Summer Daylight Experience
01:17:16
Speaker
I've done those.
01:17:17
Speaker
If you ever go to Alaska in the middle of the summer, the sun's up at like...
01:17:25
Speaker
It's bright daylight.
01:17:27
Speaker
But I think that'd be less freaky than riding a bike in the, in the, in the spooky dark.
01:17:32
Speaker
Yeah.
01:17:32
Speaker
Yeah.
01:17:33
Speaker
Yeah.
01:17:34
Speaker
All right.
01:17:34
Speaker
All right.
Humorous Debate: Wetsuit vs. Apple Cider
01:17:36
Speaker
Last quick fire.
01:17:37
Speaker
You get to wear a wetsuit or you get to have warm apple cider.
01:17:42
Speaker
Okay.
01:17:45
Speaker
I don't know how much warm apple cider it would take to keep me warm in cold water.
01:17:52
Speaker
So I think I'm just, unless I can swim in the warm apple cider.
01:17:57
Speaker
Yes, you can.
01:17:58
Speaker
Let's change it.
01:17:59
Speaker
Oh, can I do that?
01:18:00
Speaker
Okay.
01:18:00
Speaker
Well, then I'm going to.
01:18:02
Speaker
Well, actually, I think I'd still rather wear a wetsuit than swimming in warm apple cider.
01:18:06
Speaker
Yeah, you don't know what other people are doing in that warm apple cider either, Rich.
01:18:11
Speaker
Yeah, this is warm and it's yellow.
01:18:12
Speaker
What's going on?
01:18:13
Speaker
Oh, God.
Fall Triathlon Segment Conclusion
01:18:14
Speaker
All right.
01:18:14
Speaker
That's a wrap on our fall triathlon fun segment.
01:18:18
Speaker
So whether you're sipping on that pumpkin spice latte or dodging the Halloween candy or crunching through those autumn leaves on your run, remember this season is all about enjoying that back half, staying consistent,
01:18:32
Speaker
Awesome.
01:18:33
Speaker
Back over to you, Rich.
01:18:34
Speaker
All
Closing Remarks and Listener Engagement
01:18:35
Speaker
right.
01:18:35
Speaker
I hope people have giggled so hard that their stomach hurts.
01:18:39
Speaker
Folks, thanks for listening this week.
01:18:41
Speaker
It's been awesome talking to you.
01:18:43
Speaker
Be sure to follow us at 303 Triathlon and at Grit to Greatness Endurance.
01:18:47
Speaker
Of course, go to iTunes, give us a rating and a comment.
01:18:49
Speaker
We really do appreciate it.
01:18:51
Speaker
And you stay tuned, train informed and enjoy the endurance journey.
01:18:55
Speaker
For your 303 Endurance Podcast.
01:18:57
Speaker
It's your 303 Endurance Podcast.
01:19:00
Speaker
It's your 303 Endurance Podcast.
01:19:02
Speaker
It's your 303 Endurance Podcast.
01:19:33
Speaker
Endurance Podcast.