I'm nervous because the super sprint is 5 days away and I've just heard about it, never done one, but I'd like to try it!

I'm nervous about paniquing when I enter the water, some of my friends say you receive elbows, kicks, it becomes harder and the ocean turns very dark and can;t see anything and all that, first timer here, any advice is welcome

Thank you! 🙏🏼

Slow the fack down! Always! 🤣🤣 Hell yeah good job! 🚀👌

Hey Ed, thanks for sharing that, really. Honestly it takes a lot of time and effort to make the videos (more than you'd probably guess) and comments like this really make it worth it to me. Your comment and other really drove the narrative for Tuedays video that I shot today. Biggest thing I'd convey right back is that I very much empathize and understand those feelings of intimidation, discomfort, nervousness, etc. Anything I can do in some little way to help people out is worth it to me. 👍

Ed, you did your triathlon?

@@tradestone100 In a nutshell Felipe "No", It got rearranged for July, With 4 wks to go and the running and cycling in order, I started swimming only did 2 sessions and over did it and ended up with a trapped nerve in my back,Day I should of raced 25th July I was at hospital having a MRI scan which revealed the damage. Lesson learned and now booked 2022. Thanks for asking my friend.

@@gedheaton1415 auch! I hope you are doing well with your recovery. Good wishes.

@@tradestone100 same!

Always happy to help! Good on you for getting into it. It's so hard to get into it as an adult learner, I think, especially if you don't know how to swim. It took me three weeks (with coaching) to get *across the pool* when I started swimming. I maintain that starting swimming as an adult was one of the harder things I've ever had to do. Then when I did my first open water swim in a wetsuit, nearly had a panic attack and just quit the sport. It's really hard! And then same for running and biking; just feels like everyone on earth is better and faster and stronger than you are. I totally relate. Probably the single biggest thing I would encourage you to remember (once you get through the initial tough swimming, if you're learning,) is: "Triathlon" and "I'm a triathlete" are these kinda big, intimidating words. Makes you feel like you're not part of the club yet. Buuuut you CAN swim, you CAN ride a bike, and you CAN run. You're just stacking them up into a single morning with some friends. Not as bad. :) Lemme know how the race goes! They're so fun.

I totally get that. It probably took me almost a decade to get into tri just because I was intimidated of the swim. Once you work through it it's really fun :)

Appreciate it! Happy to help, you're gonna do great!

Oh I bet that'll be gorgeous! Have a great race!

I *relate* to what you're feeling. You'll get through it and that makes the accomplishment even more rewarding. 🙂

Have fun!

Happy you liked it! Good luck, you'll enjoy it!

You'll do great! Enjoy it!

You're always here to make me say "CRAP I wish I'd have included that!" The volunteers are awesome. I got to man an aid station a couple weeks ago and it was super fun! The racers were awesome

Yes!!!!

I thanked 3 groups of volunteers today at the Nautica Malibu Olympic Tri in Cali

That's awesome! Happy you're getting into it; hope you love it! :)

You'll do great!

Whoo! That'll be a fun summer goal. Enjoy it!

Have fun!

Ha, that's awesome though! Well done. 🚀🚀

You're very welcome! I appreciate you too! Comments like these really make sitting on the bike trainer more enjoyable! 😃 Honestly I think the biggest single thing I'd empathize is that if you just keep at it, the progress will come. It's not gonna be every single day, but work at it consistently long enough one day you'll have your "holy shit this is awesome" moment 😃🚀

​ @JustinDoesTriathlon Love your response! and yes! I love forward to that "holy shit this is awesome" moment :D

Congrats on the first season!

Haha saaaaame. Feels like no matter how long you're into something, there's always more to learn! Similarly I never wore/brought anything and would basically leave it to water fountains on the route. Not *terrible* but definitely not ideal either. That Nathankrar is a good pack! I see a lot of those out there. Thanks man!

Eyyy I'm happy to hear that! That's freaking exciting, you're gonna do great! Just get that swim time in so you feel comfortable, and then the rest is just getting it done. :)

@@JustinDoesTriathlon Thanks Justin and thanks for taking the time to reply. I've got quite a bit of time to train as the event I have in my sights is Nov. Planning to hit the pool in the next few weeks then build condition/technique for a couple of months then fold in cycling. Best wishes.

That's freaking awesome! I've never done that, that's for sure! Foggy goggles are the worst. I've tried seemingly every spray and product I can find, and the most consistent, best results I've found are one of the two: Option A is spit in them *before getting them wet*, rub it around, then rinse them off. Option B is put the teeny-tiniest amount of liquid soap on your finger, rub it around inside, then clean them with a paper towel. You're just going for a SUPER thin sheen on the inside. I find it's only good for about one swim, but it works well for that time. Great job again!

I swim open water in the Bahamas and there's very little you can do about foggy goggles, especially bad when swimming into the sun. My advice is that if it requires you to take a couple of strokes of breaststroke, remove goggles and take a look where you are going, it's worth it.

You gotta look up The Iron Nun! You're capable of plenty at 44 (or 84!) Have a good time, and enjoy the process. There's no rush, and longer isn't always better. 👍You'll definitely be able to do it if you keep at it.

@@JustinDoesTriathlon There was a guy who competed this year (2022) at US Masters Nationals (swimming) in the 100-104 age group. He competed in the 1,500 meter and swam it in 42 minutes!

😲 that's freaking awesome

Jokes aside, you'd survive lol. One of my good friends rides a Brompton all around Seattle and he's easily 4.5w/kg. Does fine. :)

Oh you're gonna do great-enjoy the process!

But you got it done!

You got this!

You're gonna do great!

Hope it went well!

It's a SUPER big one that I messed up and I see so many others mess up. There's almost no scenario in which being REALLY fast in the water is worth it. If a person just happens to be a club swimmer who can rock out 1:25s, sure, take that 4 minutes. But for pretty much everyone else, they're marginal at best. On the very fast side of things, yeah, knocking 10 minutes off a half IM swim might make a difference to a world champs slot, but in terms of getting into the sport, the swim is the last place I'd work on. As long as you can comfortably get through the swim, you're fine. 15 minutes of HR at 150 is much better than 13min at 185. Burn those extra matches on the bike or the run. 🚀

Hope it went well!

I've heard Cozumel is beautiful! That'll be a blast, you're gonna love it. Let me know how it goes!

@@JustinDoesTriathlon of I will! Thanks for encouraging 😊.

Thanks Francois! Happy to help.

I should mention that your reassurances regarding the swim portion are exactly what many of us needed to hear. I think for most of us beginners, it's the most frightening part.

Very relatable, happy to help. :)

Enjoy it!

Happy to help! Yeah I was SO GARBAGE when I first started swimming. I over-swam my abilities so hard, and it just bites you right in the ass. Just take it slowly; attack the next two. :)

Thrilled and nervous is a great description for it! You're going to love it. I know saying "just relax" doesn't help, but I'll say: You're probably not super nervous every time you go for a bike ride, right? That's something you're comfortable with. Same for running and (hopefully) swimming. A tri is just stringing three things you're already good at back to back. Framing it like that helped me relax and enjoy it a lot more. :)

@@JustinDoesTriathlon That is an amazing attitude and your encouraging words mean a lot! I think signing up for this tri changed my life, gave a purpose to all my activities and workouts, and I start to love the people I meet! 8 more months, cannot wait!

Just adds to the visceral experience 😅

Happy to help!

Happy to help, you'll do great! June is a long time to train, regardless of where you're at with your swimming. I was as bad as an adult could possibly be at swimming before starting training, so I can definitely attest that it gets better. The cool thing about the swim for people like us, like I talked about, is there just really isn't much time to be made or lost for most of us normal types. Just focus on comfortably, smoothly getting through it, and life will be great. It took until my third race to REALLY click with it, and from then I'd just describe the swim as 'comfortably boring.' :)

@@JustinDoesTriathlon Thank you. Oh and I'm sure I will watch this video a thousand more times before race day.

@@Redman88174 I've been there! Be sure to report back how it goes! FYI, here's a little playlist of all the beginner-focused videos. :) kzfaq.info/sun/PLrzx4L4XPCgffn6JsXUeSWqj87l_Yhn7B

Happy to help!

Awesome, happy to hear that! Good luck with your KZfaq and your training progression!

You're welcome!

You bet! Good luck with your races

Happy to help!

Absolutely! Happy you liked it!

100% you can do it. One. Hundred. :)

Have a great race!

Plus you look good!

Have a great race!

@@JustinDoesTriathlon Thanks. Looking forward to it. My second sprint race ;)

Happy to help! Pragmatism is my game. :) No offense taken on my end, it's definitely a good question. I've got a couple thoughts. First off, for me, I just basically don't care that much how I look, so I can't say I inately relate. That said, no doubt, the 'skinny cyclist/ultrarunner' look is definitely not on the top of many people's fantasy lists. Rather than just saying "deal with it," I think I'd put the other option out there: You don't have to look like that. There are a lot of extremely successful "dad bod" triathletes. Kristian Blummenfelt is proof you can be not-super-skinny and still extremely fast. Also, I think it's pretty universally agreed that more strength is great for injury prevention and general health. If you're coming in with 30 or 50lb of muscle, I don't see that as a real disadvantage long term. Nick Bare is a great example of this. I don't think he's on the pure bodybuilding end of things (I have a builder friend who is properly JACKED) but Bare is absolutely more muscular than the vast majority of runners/cyclists, and I'm pretty sure he's done a sub3 marathon. All that's to say: I don't personally think you need to decide either or. You can absolutely have a ton of muscle and be fast.

I like a liquid carb drink on the bike. :)

You'll do fine, enjoy it! :D Hold your line, stay steady, and don't go out too hard. :)

Appreciate that, hope it helps! It sounds to me like you're maybe doing draft legal racing? I have never done that (we have almost none of it here) so I can't speak to the rules specifically. When it comes to non draft Ironman racing, it's six bike lengths. As for whether you should get aerobars: Maybe! Aerobars are arguably the best cost to performance increase you can make on the bike. It's important to remember it's not as easy as throwing them on and calling it good though, you really should get a bike fitting as well. Handling can be really affected if you don't. Enjoy your race!

This is actually a really interesting question that probable deserves its own video at some point. Here’s kinda the high level: There is a lot of “bro science” out there, and it’s important to weed through that to get to the data. You here people talk about the ability to “pull up” in a pedal stroke to increase power… Not quite. A study done (#1 below) concluded that "...while torque during the upstroke did reduce the total positive work required during the downstroke, it did not contribute significantly to the external work done because 98.6% and 96.3% of the total work done at the low and high workloads, respectively, was done during the downstroke." Not significant. There’s lots of good data out there (#2) that shows the vast majority of effort is in the downstroke. Now that said, there is more to the story. Cycling shoes are absolutely more *comfortable* to wear. Rather than needing to ‘flex’ your foot and exert effort through a small section of your shoe, the whole shoe is a rigid platform that transfers power. So it’s not that more or less power is being transferred, but it’s easier on your foot (imo) to actually do that. You’re also connected to the bike, which contributes to handling confidence. I can bunny hop, aggressively ride, whatever, I know my foot isn’t about to slip off the pedal. That’s meaningful. You can get toe-clip pedals that are basically a normal pedal with straps on them which you tighten to lock your shoe in a bit more. That doesn’t really help with needing to flex your foot, but does help keep it more secure on the pedals. Cons with toe straps are that you need to physically reach down to tighten and loosen once you’re riding. Not ideal for fast entrance and release. You can get into clipless shoes and pedals (silly name, but it’s because they don’t have the ‘clips’ of the older toe straps, if you were curious) for not TOO terribly much. I rode Shimano R540 pedals for YEAAARS, and they were fine. Like $45. Shoes are worth spending a bit more because you get big comfort gains, but even the LOW shoes now are crazy more advanced than $250+ ones of 5 years ago. Bunch of good Bont and lower end Giro/Shimano shoes in the ~~$125 range. So not CHEAP, but you don’t need to be on $100 pedals and $180 shoes either. Hope that helps a bit! Short version: Toe clip pedals to start which will get you used to feeling connected to the bike. If you get to a point where you don’t like having to press and feel the pedals so much, then move to cycling shoes. 1: pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0032/7368fb9e4d467375e7b781be2d38a0ce7104.pdf 2: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1997818

@@JustinDoesTriathlon What a fantastic response and tons of information here. I will read up on the links as well. I imagine in a spring distance the time gain also may impact whether its truly worth having to switch between shoes; I will investigate more and you have given me a great starting point. You good sir, have earned a Thumbs up and a subscribe. Thanks again.

@@geoffers12 No problem! Always happy to help. I think you’d be hard pressed to quantify *time* gains in a sprint. Nothing meaningful, that’s for sure, either way. I think cycling shoes are one of those things that you can go without for as long as you want, but once you try it, you’ll have that “OH, so that’s why” experience. A lot of intangibles, but I’ll sum it up by saying it makes riding the bike a lot more comfortable, and it just makes sense. While the data doesn’t show that you get meaningful power by pulling up on the pedal stroke, I will add that anecdotally, not having to think about my feet *on* the pedals is actually really meaningful. I can climb out of the saddle, do a sprint (not in a tri, but still), spin super fast, whatever I want, and never think, “Are my feet about to fall off the pedals?” I would never go back on any sort of ‘cycling’ bike. I would agree, I don’t think you’re gonna find time gains one way or another. I might think about it more akin to like… You wouldn’t use crystal clear swim goggles while backstroking in the sun; you’d use dark ones. The dark ones don’t save you time, but they make the experience much better. That’s sorta cycling shoes. Happy to help! I’m always down to share my opinions. :)

If I may add to Justin's answer, there is another aspect to using running shoes for riding a bike which I believe is even more critical. This is the shock absorption quality of a running shoe. This works great for running and some of the energy absorbed by the shoe's sole can even help boost you when pushing off. However when riding a bike this absorbed energy is simply lost. It isn't transferred to the pedal when pushing down and there is no value in the energy returned when pulling up. You are just throwing away a certain percent of the energy you are expending. Efficient cycling shoes should be rigid and create minimal interference in the power transfer from foot to pedal.

Whoo! Enjoy it!