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#518 SMART Goals in your Periodized Training
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In Episode #518 of the Grit2Greatness Endurance Podcast, we dive into Ask A Coach: Train S.M.A.R.T., where we break down how to set process, skill, and outcome goals that align with your periodized training plan. Plus, we share announcements like TriDot Pool School, Grit2Greatness Ambassador applications, and our upcoming webinar. Don’t miss the G2G Workout of the Week: Building 100s and a festive Fun Segment: Our Favorite Things. Sponsored by Vespa Power and Grit2Greatness Endurance Coaching—your partners for smarter training and optimized performance.
TriDot Pool School CS 2/28-3/1
Link - TPS @ Colorado Springs CO- February 28-March1-Pool School
Average improvement for the last two pool schools in Colorado Springs was 15% and this was after 2 days of swimming at altitude with a lot of out-of-state visitors!
2026 Ambassador Applications Grit2Greatness is accepting applications for our 2026 Ambassador program. Apply here - https://forms.gle/mQjPbyzjAmmBhM6m9
Grit2Greatness Webinar - Greatness Is a Habit: How to Build Yours in 2026, December 16 at 6pm MT / 8pm ET LInk - https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83084039210
Grit2Greatness Strava Club - Join Us! - Club | Grit2Greatness Endurance on Strava
Show Sponsor: Vespa Power
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome everybody to your 303 Endurance Podcast. Aloha everybody, get ready for your 303 Endurance Podcast. Woo!
00:00:20
Speaker
Welcome to episode 518 the Grit to Greatness Endurance Podcast, where your hosts, coaches Rich Soares, April Spilde, and Lauren Brown. Thanks for joining us for another week of coaching questions, get gritty tips, some workout wisdom, and a little fun. Today, we are going to train smart folks. We have a great show for you, some great tips, some great announcements, and some great fun.
00:00:43
Speaker
Coach Lauren, Coach April, how are you guys doing tonight? Doing great. I'm ah calling in from chilly Boston. so i'm ah I'm thankful that I still get to be with both of you tonight.
00:00:58
Speaker
We're so glad you made it too, Lauren. And I love the pink hat representing over here. Yes. Representing the pink caps, guys. The show goes on no matter what we're doing. We find a way or make one, right guys? yeah There you go. Awesome. That is one of our values as TriDot coaches, right?
00:01:20
Speaker
Love that. Love that you are doing the Boston Pool School. How many athletes do you have out there this weekend? There's 22 athletes.
00:01:32
Speaker
Wow. That's great. that's a Nice class. And I'm excited to have two friends with me here that are taking part as athletes. So it'll be a lot of fun. Looking forward to it.
Live from Boston: Pool School Adventures
00:01:44
Speaker
What other names, Lauren? Do you want to shout them out? So we have Colette and Brenda will be representing Jersey in Boston. Let's go Jersey. oh Actually, sorry. Colette's from New York. I'm lying. okay Oh yeah. That's a good clarification. All right. I know that would be a bad mistake.
00:02:07
Speaker
Don't cross that line. Don't cross that line. Well, i' tell you what, keep track of your percent improvement because it is game on because we've got a pool school coming to Colorado Springs the end of February. So we're going pool school, pool school. Yeah. Little Royale rumble.
00:02:27
Speaker
Yeah. on average, I mean, we average about 15% improvement yeah or reduction in 100 time from the beginning of pool school to the end. So it's a proven method for sure. Well, we've got a great show. ah Let's dive in and give a shout out to our show sponsor, Vespa Power. Vespa Power Endurance helps you tap into steady, clean energy so that you can stay strong, focused, and in the zone longer.
00:02:50
Speaker
Vespa is not fuel, but a metabolic catalyst that shifts your body to use more fat and less sugar as your fuel source. Vespa comes in a variety of products for different size athletes and different appetites, less sugar, higher performance, faster recover recovery.
00:03:06
Speaker
There's a link here in the show notes for you to save 20% off of in your very first order. There's a code that you need to use at the checkout call at 303-ENDURANCE20. That's for 20% off of anything in your cart for the first order.
Sponsor Spotlight: Vespa Power
00:03:21
Speaker
April, over to you. Yes. So in today's show, and I just got a shout out to Rich here. He is our agenda master. His prowess when it comes to putting this show together is bar none. So today's show has a lot of great things. We have our announcements and news. We got some really cool things to reiterate and also share our ask a coach is all about smart goal setting. I love this topic, rich. I can't wait for us to jump in where with that. And then coach Lauren is going to bring us our workout of the week, which is building one hundreds and our fun segment.
00:03:58
Speaker
It's still a little, uh, uh, little theme from the sound of music. It's our favorite thing. So we're going to talk about all of our favorite things of multi-sport. So I'm excited to jump in with y'all.
00:04:13
Speaker
I now have the sound of music like as an earworm playing in the back of my head. Oh, yes. i I want to break out into song with Julie Andrews right now. Yeah, exactly.
00:04:26
Speaker
Crazy. My heart. Yeah. All right. So just for our listening audience, you know, i really, my agenda prowess, that this is such a funny term. This is actually less about my skill and more about just a funny inside joke, uh, from earlier this week. I think that, uh, there is like a, a BS bingo going on or something. How many times can we say this? Uh, anyway, I'm going to thank you, uh, coach april April. I will take that. Um, maybe that will be my, uh, my, my call sign, uh, yes prowess agenda prowess AP AP forget forget ah PB
00:05:06
Speaker
Yeah. AP for the win here. you just elevated, you evolved. hu Oh man. All right. So announcements.
Event Announcements: Tridot Pool School and More
00:05:16
Speaker
We just talked about Tridot Pool School Colorado Springs, February 28th through March 1st, that weekend. Link here in the show notes to sign up. We would love to see you out there. We have a blast at the Air Force Academy. And March is, February, March is a really pretty time as spring is just around the corner. And, April, you want to talk about the, uh, the improvement that we've had at our pool school?
00:05:41
Speaker
Yes. You actually hit it on the head just earlier, but I want to reiterate that we have an average improvement for the last two pool schools here in Colorado Springs. It was around 15%. And this was after two days of swimming at altitude.
00:05:57
Speaker
with a lot of out of state visitors. So that just goes to show how much you can improve with this level of focus and attention. And that's the one thing I love about pool school too, is that you get a lot of individual attention. Um, the instructors are there to help you succeed. And, and it's so inviting, like you get to be friends with your lane mates and you all learn together and it's, it's just a very low, no threat environment. And it's a lot of fun.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. And yeah yeah, underscore on the altitude part, because people turn in their 100 yard times that they perform at wherever their local, you know, in their hometown. So whatever altitude that Yes.
00:06:41
Speaker
I don't know of a single athlete except for the ones that are coming from Colorado that are actually at pool school at the altitude that they typically take that. so um We're talking 7,000 7,000 feet. Yeah. no joke. Can you feel it All right.
00:06:58
Speaker
Next great announcement, 2026 ambassador applications. The deadline is the ninth because we are announcing on the 10th. So like this is the last weekend. So link here in the show notes, if you want to apply to be an ambassador with Grit to Greatness Endurance, it is... um You know, just a great community. We had our team meeting earlier this week and just the camaraderie, ah the the encouragement, the support everybody gives each other and the support and encouragement we want to give people in the community to welcome them into the sport. And that's what we're all about. So you know how warm and welcome we are here at Grit to Greatness Endurance. And we hope that you will join us and help be a part of that culture.
00:07:47
Speaker
We have the grit to greatness webinar coming up. Greatness is a habit. How to build yours in 2026 guys. This is, and I'm going through this personally. I'll just, you know, share a personal, uh, public safety or public service announcement, if you will.
00:08:01
Speaker
Um, This webinar is a do not miss December 16th, 6 PM mountain time, 8 PM Eastern time link here in the show notes. You do want to pre-register.
00:08:12
Speaker
Habit building is so dang important. I've got to say, like when I got, went into my little bit of an off season here, i really got in the habit of the very first thing I do. Like the first thing I used to do, like always would be like, you you wake up, you get a cup of coffee and get on the, get on the trainer or go to the pool or get on the treadmill.
00:08:32
Speaker
The last couple of weeks or a few weeks, I have been just like getting and just starting doing email. And before I know it, I've chewed up the opportunity and and squandered my opportunity to get my training done. So I am reestablishing my habit with a
Upcoming Webinar: Habit Building for 2026
00:08:46
Speaker
trigger and a b you know and the ah the the behavior. you know um And my reward is that I actually just feel great that I got it accomplished and i'm back on track. So...
00:09:00
Speaker
So learn about yours, learn how to join us and learn how to make habits, make transformation in your 2026 season. Also, we have our grit to greatness Strava club. Join us. We've got a link here in the show notes. More people are joining every day. It's a great, it's like a buzz out there now.
00:09:19
Speaker
And 18 numbers now, Richard, to throw that out there. 18. Yep. That's awesome. Yeah. Not bad for being about a week old. So coach Lauren, thank you for setting that up. I'm having a lot of fun posting a weird.
00:09:35
Speaker
She's net in there. but I got to tell you, I'm not wearing ah my watch right now because I broke my wrist, uh, the wristband on there. So I had to duct tape it for my swim. So I made sure I got a picture of that too.
00:09:52
Speaker
That is awesome. Yeah, I love putting pictures in my workouts, especially when you have something that is a a great story, like a duct taped wristband or a watch band. It's awesome.
00:10:05
Speaker
That's getting it done, April. And then ah last, we're really excited about this. We've got our Grit to Greatness Velocity Cycling subscription coming out here. This is gonna be a new program we're gonna offer, which is going to be ah live classes and replayed classes. These are gonna be like spin classes only with real purpose, real focus on bike skills. We will be really dialing in ah power, you know, like how to generate steady power, efficient power, how to have a smooth, efficient pedal stroke,
00:10:36
Speaker
and how to be able to control your cadence and power in various cycling
New Launch: Velocity Cycling Subscription
00:10:41
Speaker
conditions. Great way if you're if you're struck you know if you're still learning how to you know how to gear for different conditions, man, this is going to be a great platform for you. If you're trying to take it to the next level and eke out every little bit of power in the course um and you know and make sure that you are either prepared for those high bursts, steep climbs, uh, or, uh, fast ascent where you still need to put a little power in, ah we're gonna able to help you with all of that.
00:11:10
Speaker
We've got some special shout outs to guys, coaches, you've got some athletes racing this weekend. You want to give shout out? Sure. I'll, I'll go first. I'm going to shout out. Laura is racing her first Ironman 70.3 at La Quinta and Literally as I was on the uber from the train station to the hotel She sent me a text message standing in front of ironman village Like super excited that she got her pink cap. So again representing the pink cap I'm obviously super pumped about tri dots limitless initiative to get more women involved in triathlon and I am
00:11:50
Speaker
So excited. i did a post today, not to take too much time here, but I did a post today about kind of shouting out busy women and saying that, you know, it's not that you have no time. It's not that you're chaotic. It's just that you need some structure and you need a program that evolves with the busy life that you have. And I have to shout out Laura because she is, she's busy with her full-time job. She also was traveling while working full-time in Italy for about six weeks while training for this race and was able to get the training done, pivot where she needed to pivot And i am so pumped for her to tow that start line on Sunday and track her and again, just celebrate the season and celebrate her, her first 70.3. So. That's awesome.
00:12:48
Speaker
Well, we are excited for her. Good luck, Laura. going crush it. I love that you brought in a limitless initiative too with that, Warren. Um, it's so, it it just filled my heart with pride to see how powerful those announcements were yesterday, especially coming from Mark Allen. Um, and then the slots filling up within a matter of 14 hours, talking about 500 women that want to start their own triathlon journey, that that is just a massive wave of, encouragement and excitement. And I'm i'm so glad that we're a part of this.
00:13:24
Speaker
And yes, Laura, you're going to crush it. We are. We can't wait to hear how it goes. And and ah your coach shared your photo with us and you could just feel the positivity and and energy. And it is one, you know, it's one of those once in a lifetime moments when you get to do it for the first time. So enjoy every minute.
00:13:44
Speaker
Um, I want to give a shout out to my athlete, Sarah Barr. She is in Florida taking on clash Daytona this Sunday as part of a relay team. And she is the runner on the team.
00:13:59
Speaker
We'll be running nine miles on the Daytona track. And I am pumped for her. This is actually another simulation for her also, cause she's getting ready for a marathon in February. So just lots of confidence building and good experiences. And then she's of course with the try dot family. So lots of great things happening this weekend. So sending love to both Sarah and Laura for amazing races and just once in a lifetime experiences.
Athlete Shout-Outs and Race Readiness
00:14:30
Speaker
That's awesome. Good luck, ladies. You guys are going to crush it this weekend. All right. Well, let's get going. I think that's all of my announcements, guys. Let's roll into the next thing.
00:14:43
Speaker
Yes, that is our show sponsor for our Ask a Coach section, Grit to Greatness Endurance Coaching. Athletes, the best gift you can give yourself this holiday season is smarter training. We're putting it out there, folks. At Good to Greatness Endurance Coaching, we've teamed up with Predictive Fitness to bring you the gift of precision, progress, and purpose.
00:15:05
Speaker
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00:15:29
Speaker
Yes, we do. We have you covered and we have some great content for you guys. So listen, you we, you know, we we'd really, you know, there's a lot of thought that goes into your success as an athlete with Grit Greatness
Goal Setting for Athletes: The Importance of SMART Goals
00:15:45
Speaker
Endurance. And one of the things that, you know, we really want to, know, think about is When we, you know, we spend this time doing, you know, our end of year SWOT analysis to identify our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We identify the priorities for our season.
00:16:03
Speaker
What we're gonna do today is a thing that can make or break your season. Now that we have all those priorities and we know where we wanna focus, We want to show you how to how to set you know how to create the process, skill, and outcome goals as a part of your periodized training that will make sure that they are specific, measurable, achievable, and time-bound to the mesocycle. And a mesocycle in periodization is basically that kind of monthly cycle of build, build, build, recover ah that you do as a part of your development and race-specific phase. so
00:16:41
Speaker
why goals matter in periodization. First, let's talk about why this matters. Periodization is all about structuring your training into cycles, macro cycles, mesocycles, micro cycles. Think of your season as the macro cycle, the month as the mesocycle, and the week as the micro cycle. And you want to make sure that this is all set up so that you have developed and and grown your capacity for the to be able to perform at the specific event that you are training for, and you want to build a peak at the right time, but with clear goals, but without click clear goals, periodization is just a calendar with workouts. The goals are going to give your training purpose and direction and give you some engagement in your training. So think of it this way.
00:17:32
Speaker
We want to put in there some outcome goals. These are the big picture ones. These could be your dot scores, your you know your swim, dot bike, dot run dot scores. These could be a race result. This could be your PR. This could be your qualification. Those are outcome goals. Those are things that we we want to happen, um but we might not necessarily control all of the elements that create that outcome.
00:17:58
Speaker
We like to also focus on process goals. There are daily habits and actions that get you there, like hitting your prescribed workouts or fueling properly. And there are things like skill goals that are all about improving your specific abilities, like improving your strokes per length in the pool, becoming a more efficient swimmer, mastering open water siding, or your pedaling cadence or power control, or nailing your bike handling.
00:18:26
Speaker
When we put together a training plan, we are looking at those individual cycles. What is the goal for that cycle? And then how are we going to measure it? What are the specific measurements, metrics that we can actually pursue and measure to see and chart our progress along the way to make sure that we are either making progress toward the goal at the trajectory that we need to or giving us the information that we need in a frequent enough matter manner to be able to make adjustments and course correct as needed.
00:19:02
Speaker
i Love talking about goals and we'll break down next the the SMART framework. So here's the key. Every goal should be SMART. So if you're not familiar with the acronym SMART, it stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable.
00:19:21
Speaker
relevant and time bound. And in the context of periodization, that time bound piece means aligning your goals with your mesocycle. And like coach Rich alluded to earlier, this is typically three to six weeks focused on a particular training objective.
00:19:40
Speaker
So I'm going give an example, applying goals to a mesocycle. And let's just say that you're in a base phase of mesocycle in triathlon.
00:19:51
Speaker
Your focus might be aerobic endurance and technique. And this is an example of how your goals can look during this mesocycle, your outcome goal. So again, this is that big picture goal by the end of this four week mesocycle,
00:20:10
Speaker
complete a 90 minute zone two ride without exceeding 140 beats per minute heart rate. So this goal is measurable.
00:20:22
Speaker
It's tied to the mesocycle. It's time bound. It's specific. And ideally this is an attainable goal for yourself. Another example for a skill goal during the base phase mesocycle might be that you are working to improve your swim stroke efficiency by reducing your stroke count from 22 to 20 per 25 meters by week four.
00:20:48
Speaker
So again, this is, you can tell by hearing it, right? It's measurable. It's achievable within the cycle. It's very specific. So you know what the end goal is that you are working towards and what you need to do to get there, which helps with process goals, right? So process goal, An example of a process goal rather would be to complete all scheduled workouts with at least 90% adherence and log your nutrition daily. So this is something that keeps you accountable to the habits that drive the performance.
00:21:22
Speaker
Now, what separates these, why separate these goals? Each type of goal serves a different purpose. And we mentioned this earlier outcome goals, because it's this big picture, right? It keeps you focused on performance benchmarks.
00:21:39
Speaker
Skill goals are going to ensure that you're developing and the technical abilities that support these outcomes. And then process goals build consistency, which is the foundation of success. I love process goals because for me, process goals are like it's and again, that's a big, Oh, you check this off, you check this off, you check this off, but process goals for me tie into creating the habits that allow you to stick to what you need to, to reach, to be consistent with your skills and then reach the outcome. So for me, process goals go so like they marry and dance beautifully with your habits.
00:22:23
Speaker
So when you combine all three, You create a roadmap that connects your daily actions to your long-term aspirations. And we want to give you the tips for success to create that beautiful dance that coach Lauren just explained. So you, uh, are going to have more success, not only by identifying what your goals are, whether it's outcome, skill, or process, but you also need to write them down.
00:22:55
Speaker
Um, I don't have the statistic in front of me, but it's vastly different between just saying out loud, I want to do this versus actually writing it down and holding yourself accountable with a written goal.
00:23:07
Speaker
You don't just want to think about your goals. You need to document them. You can put them in your training log. put them in the app, whatever you're using as a journal to keep yourself accountable, to hit the milestones that you're looking to hit with the goals that you've set.
00:23:26
Speaker
You also want to review these weekly, at least. You're going to check your progress at the end of each micro cycle. Are you on track or do you need to adjust? I would say even a better, um, if you can, is looking at daily, how is my daily goal addressing my weekly so that I can find the connection between the habits that I'm trying to create and the outcomes I'm trying to achieve.
00:23:56
Speaker
And then of course, I love this one, celebrate small wins. It is it goes a long way to acknowledge, even just saying out loud, wow, I crushed that workout. Or I did really a great job of planning my meals today. I feel like I was well fed and fueled for my workouts.
00:24:14
Speaker
I got eight hours of sleep. My HRV is looking amazing. Like these are all things that we take, we can take for granted, but they are wins and they are the check marks or the hallmarks of success.
00:24:30
Speaker
And then finally stay flexible. We all have crazy things that throw us off track. Life happens. Life be life. And at times, um, If you miss a goal, learn from it and reset for the next cycle. Don't just stay stuck.
00:24:48
Speaker
Don't stay in the defeated state. There's every reason to start again, or even pick up where you left off. When you are building those habits and you're working towards making those transformative changes, a lot of times there will be things that throw you
Challenge: Crafting Your SMART Goals
00:25:05
Speaker
off guaranteed, but that doesn't mean that you're starting over from scratch. It means that you're building on the foundation that you've already started. So just keep moving forward.
00:25:16
Speaker
So here's your challenge for the week. We want you to look at your current mesocycle and write one outcome goal. One skill goal and one process goal using the smart framework.
00:25:32
Speaker
Keep them realistic and make sure they align with your phase of training. This is an awesome challenge for all of us to reconnect with why we do what we do and maybe also look at why we shouldn't be doing we what we're doing. Uh, so this is our challenge for you all. Um, as well as us, I think this is a great time of the year to reconnect with not only, um, the vision for the next year, but also just looking at what we're doing on a day-to-day basis. So thank you coach Rich for this awesome topic.
00:26:07
Speaker
Thank you. All right. Should we jump into the workout of the week? I'm ready. I'm
Workout Focus: Building 100s Swim Set
00:26:13
Speaker
ready. I got my snorkel, my goggles, my fins on. We're ready to jump in the deep end here. It's fitting. Cause I'm doing pool school that I have a a assume workout here. and a lot of times when I'm thinking about the the workout of the week, it's inspired by either my own workout conversations with athletes. This one is inspired by my workout this week because it is building one hundreds. And if I'm being completely transparent,
00:26:39
Speaker
This week when I did it was the first time where I was like, ha I'm actually enjoying this workout. for For whatever reason, I had a mental block where I was like, I hate going from zone one to zone five. I'd rather just stay at one pace for my hundred. i so i I either am at zone one or zone five. I'm not, you know, so...
00:26:59
Speaker
Anyway, this swim session is important and I feel like it finally like sunk in where I was like, okay I'm sharing this workout because it's important to have it in your session. So building 100s is designed to sharpen your pacing, reinforce clean technique. and teach your body how to shift gears on demand. So this style of workout gold in the development phase, because you're learning control, how to start smooth, build speed, elevate cadence, and actually hit your zones with intention.
00:27:34
Speaker
The warmup stays consistent. So if you're new to the podcast, it consists of drills to neuromuscularly prepare you for the workout. And if you've done try it up full school, you know, your TPS drills show up again and again, because they keep your tools sharp.
00:27:50
Speaker
So keep it clean, keep it crisp and ease into the workout. So beyond the drills that you're going to just, you know, get going when you get in the pool to neuromuscularly prepare for the session, this set starts with, we'll call it an extended warmup. So you're going to roll into four 25 kick,
00:28:13
Speaker
then hit some three by 50 at zone one. So you're really actually settling into this slower cadence and understanding that recovery cadence and then two by 100 choice at zone two. So again, just getting the body moving, dial into your posture in the water, get the feel for the water.
00:28:34
Speaker
And then the main set, which is four rounds of five by 100, And again, this used to drive me nuts. And this week I finally was like, oh my God, I i got it. i I got the breakdown. So you're going to do your first 100 with the first 75 at zone one. And in the last 25, you're going to pick up the cadence to a zone four effort or zone four pace.
00:28:58
Speaker
The next 100, you're going to do 75 at zone one and then finish at zone five for the final 25. Third set. third set is 50 at zone one and then 50 at zone four. So at your threshold, you're going to hit your fourth hundred all out zone five.
00:29:18
Speaker
And then you're going to get that final fifth, 100 at zone one to reset and recover. You'll have a 20 second rest in between these, which for me, that 20 second rest on like the first two, i'm like,
00:29:33
Speaker
I don't really need 25, 20 seconds rest. Like I was going, I'm going so easy. I'm easing into it. And then you quickly are like, Oh wait, no, take the rest. There's a reason for the rest. Don't rush the workout. And I really, it's just funny how sometimes workouts don't land. It's the same thing how sometimes if you're being coached on something, three people can say the same thing to you. And then a fourth person tells you something and you're like, Oh,
00:29:59
Speaker
I get it. And for me, it was like this workout's shown up and I've always understood the purpose of it, but I didn't like, I didn't embrace it. And I think mentally i wasn't embracing it and I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. So that's your main set. I'll, I'll pass it off to, to coach rich for the next, uh, talking about the goal of the workout.
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah. You mentioned the goal, the purpose of this, and it really is. ah ah it is a workout that really forces you to learn swim pace intelligence. You're not just swimming.
00:30:32
Speaker
You are learning the pacing that you're going to need to know intuitively and instinctively when you are racing. So pace control, you know, you know, this, you start really easy in this nice discipline, you're holding yourself back and you are just focusing on swimming as smooth and pretty as you can. You should feel how quickly you know, you should be able to feel and know intuitively how quickly you can snap from that kind of easy zone one pace into a zone four and then a zone five pace without falling apart and know the distinction between zone four and zone five.
00:31:11
Speaker
Big difference here. Zone four is going to be below your lactate threshold. Zone five is going to be above your lactate threshold. You are going to feel like you're going to need more recovery, talking about your 20 second recoveries.
00:31:24
Speaker
that's It gets pretty short after a zone five effort because you are in that more anaerobic lac lactate building effort. And depending on just what your capacity is for zone five, that that could you could you can feel it pretty quick.
00:31:39
Speaker
It also teaches you cadence changes under fatigue. So those 25, 50 meter surges teach you to pick up your turnover or your stroke rate on command while still maintaining body position, rotation, and catch quality. If you have something like form goggles and you can track or you you could actually track your data, what your stroke rate is at these different uh, intensities, you could start to intuitively start to know, okay, I know that I am at this stroke rate. If you have form goggles, you're getting the data presented to you while you are training and racing.
00:32:15
Speaker
Also, it is a great place to like go back and forth between these, these, these different intensities, because when you come back into that low intensity, you're going able to focus a little bit more on your you know intentional form, right? Being really kind of smooth and and you know focusing on that that fast form that we teach in pool school. And then you know you when you get to settle down, you get you reestablish that, and then you accelerate back into zone four and zone five, you are trying to just bring that form right along. You're not trying to change anything, right?
00:32:52
Speaker
The form stays the same. You're just changing the stroke rate and the power, the force that you are using on that pull and on your kick. Mental focus, these really give you a chance to like, like you can't be on autopilot for this. You have got to be concentrating and really paying attention. And the, the also going between zone one and zone four and zone one and zone five, it gives you that opportunity to,
00:33:20
Speaker
yeah it you know, just the practice of refocusing. If you've ever done meditation, right. And you lose the meditation because you're, you know, you're, you you get distracted by a thought.
00:33:31
Speaker
Meditation is about return, the practice is about returning back to that state of, you know, you know, you know, controlling your thoughts, right? And, and, and, and staying focused in the moment and not on, you know, you know, the future or the past. It's the same here, right? It is giving you, you get a return to focus and that in itself is an exercise in mental, mental strength. Every rep has a purpose. Every every shift matters. ah you know You have to pay attention to your breath, your stroke timing, your transitions between zones, and the ability to relax and then explode. This is a pace this is pacing mastery in motion.
00:34:15
Speaker
So for us to execute this at a high level, we want to make sure that our mindset is right when we go into the set. Think calm where I can fire where I must. We are talking about zone one, zone five. So there's definitely a calm and a surge on this zone one intervals. Here are some great cues to help you focus in lock in as the Gen Zers like to say, and I guarantee there's a collective viral. If we even have audience of Gen Z on here, but anyway, here are your cues.
Humor and Gear: Celebrating Endurance Favorites
00:34:50
Speaker
Long aligned spine, light kicks from the hips, soft hands, smooth rotation, shoulders and hips at that 45 degrees, no leaking energy.
00:35:03
Speaker
And then on those zone four zone five surges, you're going to commit, lift your cadence, reach with your hand, stay tall and don't rush the catch.
00:35:17
Speaker
This is very controlled. This is controlled intensity, not chaos in the lane. So to wrap up your action item. is to give it a go this week and let us know.
00:35:32
Speaker
This is a little gift of a swim session. It's perfect. Uh, and ask yourself, was this more mentally challenging for you or physically? Spoiler alert for most athletes, the brain gets tired before the body. And that's exactly why this works. So I love that. the This is a little gift for our swim session, coach Lauren. Uh, it feels like a gift. Uh, the idea around the mindset as well as the focus and control, um, it really is a great way to practice that. So coach rich too. I love the meditation focus too.
00:36:12
Speaker
Okay, we are at the fun segment and I'm gonna bring in a little bit of a Julie Andrews for you. We are talking about our favorite things. Since it is that time of year when twinkle lights are glowing, playlists are looping and everyone suddenly remembers they love peppermint.
00:36:33
Speaker
We thought we'd bring in a little holiday cheer to the podcast with our own endurance theme twist on a classic. That's right. When the bike slips, when the run stings, when we're feeling tired, we simply remember our favorite things and then we don't feel...
00:36:52
Speaker
So fired. yeah it All right. We're trying to avoid a copyright infringement. All right. So thank you for bearing with me there tonight. We're going to unwrap our favorite multi-sport related things, the gear, the tunes, the fuel, and the little performance joys that keep us going through the season.
00:37:12
Speaker
So go ahead and grab your hot cocoa, your compression socks, Maybe a gingerbread stroopwafel if you're feeling festive because it's time to share the endurance gear that brightens our days like the Christmas lights on a long winter ride. So Rich Lauren, let's start with what is your favorite sports sports watch? And I'm laughing because I'm thinking back to my Garmin wristband here.
00:37:38
Speaker
The one that you would never race without.
00:37:44
Speaker
Shall I, shall I take it away? I'll, I'll take it away. um my Garmin for runner nine, six, five. It's my, it's my first Garmin. Honestly, i did not have a Garmin for a long time. I know. So were you Apple?
00:37:59
Speaker
I had my Apple watch and I also had somebody who raced on field. I didn't even have power meter for my first 70.3. I was like Yep. rp baby hill yep So, uh, for, for most of it. So would say, yeah, my Garmin is on whether I'm training, racing. i don't care if I'm at a wedding, if I'm dancing, it's tracking it. so always. How about you coach Rich?
00:38:28
Speaker
Well, you know, it's funny. um i I wear the exact same watch. I would i would say the nine the Garmin 965 is definitely the watch that I would wear. But this is after, i mean, it's got to be like 10 devices over the last 20 years, you know? I mean, i think back, like the very first one I had...
00:38:50
Speaker
Like I mean, it was like this tall, this big and it had this like funny little curve in it. It was a big square sucker it wasn't even waterproof back You had to like, what I would literally do is like take it and stick it under my swim cap in the back. So I had this big lump in the back.
00:39:12
Speaker
So it pick up the satellite, but not get submerged in the water. God. Yeah. And I literally look like a knucklehead. mean, just you got a giant knuckle. Yeah. The things you do for data.
00:39:26
Speaker
I remember that sucker, Rich. I brought that out on a deployment once. Um, And it did. It took up the and almost a third of my arm. But it worked.
00:39:40
Speaker
And the one before that was like a big oval. don't know if you guys remember that. It was like a big oval. And it just it sat sideways on your arm. It was the goofiest looking thing.
00:39:52
Speaker
Well, I'm in the same club as you all. I'm not as cool as you both. I have the nine 45. So breaking my wristband might be a, uh, a little Santa ah hint here maybe a little stocking stuffer. Hint, hint, Peter. Uh, if you're listening, yeah, not too soon. All right. Um, favorite sock brand, the pair that absolutely slaps for long runs or rides.
00:40:23
Speaker
I love these terms because slaps, I feel like is also like a ah Gen Z baby and z term. I'm like, look at you, April. um So I'm like probably a weirdo with this that I'm not necessarily like, oh my God, I need these socks. I found on socks that I want, not that I might go to, but on Amazon that I actually just love. And I don't even know the name of them, but they're so comfortable. So going to share a name of one that's Maybe more recognizable that I also still do enjoy a little bit more so in like summer running season, but is a Swiftwick brand. I always have those in my rotation.
00:41:01
Speaker
Like that a lot.
00:41:05
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I really prefer nice, like very thin, like the thinner the sock, the better for me. It also has to be fairly durable. I love, I've got a pair of Castelli, you know, socks that are just like great for cycling and running because they're just nice and thin and light.
00:41:22
Speaker
But the other side, I don't even know what the brand is, but it's actually the Tridot Ambassador Socks. Yeah, you do wear those often. They're great. I mean, like they are like the perfect height.
00:41:33
Speaker
They have just the, like the right amount of, you know, like how, like the design has like different fabrics and sort of like a more meshy fabric in certain spots. So it like gives more, it's like, man, they just feel so good. I could like run forever. and them Okay. I'm going to ask, this is going to tell me where you fall here in the cool kids club, ankle socks or crew socks.
00:41:59
Speaker
I mean, wear ankle socks unless I'm running in the winter and then I'll wear like, like compression socks that just give me more coverage on my leg.
00:42:10
Speaker
Lauren, are you a millennial? Um, I was born an elder millennial i'm born in 1982. What does that make me? Yeah. You're right in the cusp. You are a cusper. Yeah. ah ah So you hit the millennial jackpot of a ankle sock. Yeah, this is this is not cool anymore if you ask the Gen Zers. The crew sock is now the in vogue sad choice. I'm going shopping tomorrow.
00:42:39
Speaker
but But I also enjoy ankle socks. My favorite sock baron to run in is features. I just enjoy the thin compression, very similar to to Rich with the literally the features of the socks. So ah thanks for indulging me there. um our next favorite thing.
00:43:00
Speaker
Before we go on. Yeah. We have to talk we have to talk about socks. So there are...
00:43:06
Speaker
I opened a can of socks here. This is the funniest thing. like cycling, like my experience The higher the sock and the brighter the color, the better the cyclist. Yep. Yep. And it's like, and if you're out there and like You're wearing ankles. you don Yeah. or Or worse, let's say you don't really have the, yeah like if you're, if you don't have, if you're running around with a. Tube socks. 1.5 power to weight ratio, you probably want to have a little bit lower, a little bit more plain socks.
00:43:44
Speaker
It's a status symbol. Yes. We're shopping for socks with my daughter and was looking for some cycling socks and we were at the store and she's like, she found these like really high, really bright, really loud. I'm like, don't i don't think you've earned those yet, Lord. You're begging for it. ah Oh, I love it.
00:44:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's a status symbol for sure. All right. Thank you for that, Rich. Favorite try or endurance related book? The one you've you'd hand to any athlete looking for inspiration or wisdom.
00:44:26
Speaker
you want kick it off, Rich? or are you go ahead I got look right now i gotta to look at my bookshelf here for a second. Okay, then I'll share mine is Indoor Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson.
00:44:43
Speaker
Love that. I would say mine is The Sports Gene. h I really like alec i really we really like Alex Hutchinson. In fact, we actually had him on the show years ago. Oh,
00:44:58
Speaker
um So that is actually a podcast episode you can go back and listen listen to. But the sports gene is really about the, know, how certain people are, like how certain like outlier athletes, what enables outlier athletes genetically to perform. So it's really kind of a fascinating study.
00:45:22
Speaker
I have a few, but i I really liked, um, I'll just say a little bit of recency bias here, but I, I enjoyed reading, uh, James Lawrence's new book, iron hope.
00:45:34
Speaker
I found the, the little stories as well as, lessons that he shared. I found those very inspiring. So I think that's a good one to, to give to an athlete. Not to encourage them to do a hundred iron mans over a hundred days, but more to, to build that mental softness, that grit to understand that they can do anything.
00:45:57
Speaker
Okay. Let me pull up our next one here. Okay. Your hype song, the one that turns zone two energy into let's wreck it.
00:46:13
Speaker
You want to lead rich?
00:46:16
Speaker
Uh, yeah, sure. Uh, there is a a version of ah we will rock you out there. That is a mix that is like higher energy than the traditional classic version of it that I love to have in my playlist when I am doing an FTP test.
00:46:36
Speaker
I love that one. Good stuff. on many spin tracks when I'm teaching that's shown up. That's a good one. Cause you just, you can't like not follow the beat on that track too. Like there's some songs where you're like, cause when I'm teaching spin, I ride to the beat of the music. So if a track is 85 BPM, like BPM, we're riding at 85 RPM. And some of the tracks, it's like, you cannot miss this beat.
00:47:02
Speaker
I just follow it. That's one of them. So, um, I feel like there's a lot of songs that come on where I'm like, if I'm supposed to be running slow, it's just that goes completely out the window. but I feel like one song, no matter what. And this was actually playing at um Iron Man at Atlantic City 70.3 when I was walking into the water and it made me feel like, okay, F yeah, I got this. And it was Eminem till I collapse.
00:47:33
Speaker
Yeah. Solid choice. Solid choice. I am in the same vein as you, Lauren. I, I think my, um, the song that slaps for me is phenomenal by Eminem.
00:47:46
Speaker
Oh, and I will say like, okay. I don't know if you've seen the movie Southpaw. I, I, I, okay. For warning here.
00:47:58
Speaker
It is one of those movies that will ah have you crying, like bent over crying. it is It is that emotional, but it is so, so powerful. Highly recommend, highly recommend. But the song Phenomenal was one of the key songs that Eminem wrote for the movie. And every time I hear it, I'm just like, I just get goosebumps. So I encourage you to listen to it sometime this week. It's a good one.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:48:27
Speaker
Okay. Last one, favorite gel or sports nutrition, the magic fuel that never lets you bonk. Do we all have the same answer on this?
00:48:39
Speaker
but yeah knew know yeah Oh, was not planned. I promise it was not planned. It's not product placement. It's true feelings. A hundred percent.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yep. And I'm sorry I didn't leave any of my answers for surprises. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it on tonight. So that's why all of my answers were written and they weren't surprises. Oh, it's perfect though, Lauren. It's good.
00:49:02
Speaker
It's good. Vespa hands down.
00:49:06
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. i you know, started using Vespa at the beginning of this year. I think one of my first times using it was with rich when we did the brecci binder and it just made such a massive difference, not only during the race, but how i recovered after and, um, love it. Absolutely love it.
00:49:26
Speaker
Okay. That is a wrap on our favorite things. I love this because it reminds us that while my multi-sport can be serious, including the gear, the gadgets, music,
00:49:38
Speaker
But it's also the little rituals, the things that make us individual that are unique to us. So Rich had different answers from Lauren. We did collide on a few of them, but we all have our own uniques that are encouraging to us. And I love sharing that with you all. So those tiny choices tell a story of what motivates us, what comforts us, and what gets us to the door.
00:50:02
Speaker
on the days it would be easier not to. So whenever Lauren comes to visit, we're going to be playing till I collapse. I need to add socks. The reason why asked these questions to spoiler alert, I'm going Christmas shopping for you too. So I am not getting a sports watch though. Just so you know, don't be thinking that's going to show up. Sorry. But dollars on us.
00:50:27
Speaker
Yeah. yeah I've got some great socks and peanut butter and jelly socks. Yes, you do Yes, you do. Yep. yeahp So nice job.
00:50:37
Speaker
i commend you for your creativity in this segment, uh, coach Lauren or coach April. Sorry. Awesome. No, it's good. And, uh, um, thank you for sharing with me what fires you up and to our listeners, we would love to hear your favorites too. So be sure to share them with us on Facebook, Instagram, Instagram,
00:50:56
Speaker
And who knows, you may inspire someone else's next great purchase or playlist edition. Love that. Folks, been an amazing hour with you. Thanks for tuning in and listening this week. Be sure to follow us at YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, at Grit2Greatness. And of course, give us a rating and a comment. We really appreciate you and the feedback. Stay tuned, train informed, and enjoy this endurance journey.
00:51:24
Speaker
For your 303 Endurance Podcast. It's your 303 Endurance Podcast. It's your 303 Endurance Podcast. It's your 303 Endurance Podcast. It's your 303 Endurance Podcast.
00:52:03
Speaker
Endurance Podcast.