If you’re new to triathlon and swimming, you may have noticed your fellow athletes at the pool or at races using bands to warm up and wondered if that’s something you should try. The short answer is: yes, bands are are a great way to get your shoulders, back and other muscles warm before jumping into the water. You can also use bands for full-on workouts if you cannot get to the pool. Slowtwitch spoke with former collegiate swimmer and current swim coach Ben Russell to get his take on band warmups, band swim workout alternatives and more for triathletes.

The Importance of Warming up

Russell swam at NYU and, after graduation, he stayed in New York City, where he now coaches the Red Tide masters swim club. The club has more than 200 members who can swim together up to seven times each week, with Russell (who is the club’s head coach), or one of the other Red Tide coaches as the on-deck lead.

Like any good coach, Russell highlights the importance of doing a good warmup before each workout. When it comes to bands, he says you don’t have to do all that much to get your body ready before diving into the pool.

“It can be a very quick five- or 10-minute thing,” he says. “You’re just trying to get some blood flow to your arms and through your shoulders to get ready to swim.”

Russell adds that hitting your lats in this band warmup is a good idea, too, especially if you’re swimming freestyle (which is, of course, the stroke of choice for most triathletes).

“Warming up is important no matter where you’re swimming, but especially if you’re doing open water, [because] you might take an awkward stroke or something, which could tweak or pull a muscle,” he says.

Bands and Other Warmup Tools

Russell says that bands are great to use for warmups, but he has a different tool that he uses first up before his swims.

“I get a PVC pipe and take it from in front of my body to behind my body,” he says. “As I do that and my shoulders start loosening up a little more, I start moving my hands closer and closer together along the pipe, just to kind of loosen up my shoulders a little bit before starting anything else.”

If you’re having trouble picturing that move, it’s quite simple. Your arms are in front with your hands spread out wide on the pipe, then you lift straight up, over your head and then slightly behind you. Don’t force your arms back, just go far enough so you feel a stretch in your shoulders.

With that move done, Russell says it’s time to move on to your bands. But what kind should you get? There are a lot of options on the market, and they are available in many different tensions. Russell says you want a band that is “pretty loose” for the purpose of warmups.

“You want to feel some strain, but it’s not like you’re trying to build muscle,” he says. “It’s just waking things up a little bit.”

With that low-tension band, Russell first starts by taking it in both hands and holding his arms out straight so that “it’s like you’re making a T with your body.”

From there, you bend at one elbow until your arm is at 90 degrees. Next, keeping your arm out straight from shoulder to elbow, rotate down so your hand goes from pointing up to pointing forward, than rotate back up. Do this movement 10 or so times, then repeat on the other arm.

Russell’s next recommendation is the same move (arm bent at 90 degrees and rotating down and back up), but with a repositioned stationary arm. For this move, instead of holding your one arm out straight, you’ll keep it down at your side so that the band crosses your body from one hip up to the opposite shoulder.

“This is working down your arm a little bit,” Russell says. “It’s more of an activation through your whole arm.”

Russell’s last suggestion for this banded warmup requires a pole. (The pole that holds the flags at the end of the lane works well for this.) Start by putting the band around the pole, then hold it on either side. Russell says to bend at your waist to about 120 degrees (down but not all the way to 90), then pull the band down to your sides.

“It’s almost like the butterfly stroke when you’re underwater,” he says. This will help activate your lats before you hop into the pool.

Your upper body may be warmed up at this point, but Russell notes that you can’t neglect your legs. He says simply doing some leg swings while on the deck can help to “loosen up the hips” and get you ready to go.

Finally, he adds that this is only the first part of your warmup and that it doesn’t mean you’re ready to swim at full speed as soon as you hit the water. The first chunk of your swim should still be dedicated to slower pacing, drills, kick and whatever else you use to ease into your workouts.

Dry-Land Training

Sometimes your life will get busy and for whatever reason, you won’t be able to get to the pool for your swim sessions. If you have a band, however, you can still fit in an alternative workout that will at least keep you in swimming fitness.

For these workouts, you’ll want something with a bit more tension than the bands you’ll use in warmups. There are also bands you can buy that have handles, which make it easier to use for swim-specific training and moves.

As Russell says, these workouts will mainly focus on the catch section (when you’re pulling the water) of your stroke. You can certainly go through the motion of doing your full stroke, but the emphasis and most of the focus should be put on the catch.

“You can go back to that lat activation I mentioned for a warmup, just with a slightly stronger band,” Russell says. If you have a pole you can use at home our outside (for example, the post of a basketball hoop), this will work great. You can also get bands that can be anchored to doors, which will allow you to do these at home, at hotels or wherever else you’re trying to fit a workout in.

Russell says you can do one of two movements here. First is one arm at a time (like freestyle) or two arms at once (like butterfly). You can also focus on one arm for however many reps, then move to the other arm, or you can simulate your regular freestyle stroke motion and go from one arm right into the next continuously.

While this is a swimming alternative, you’re not going to get the exact same benefits of a swim. Russell says not to go into this trying to get any sort of cardio done, but rather to look at it solely as a strength routine.

“If you did six to 10 45-second to one-minute sets where you’re really intentional with each pull, that’ll keep you in a good place,” Russell says. That’s quite a quick workout, but it will still help to maintain and even develop more strength in your arms and back, helping you prevent too much loss of fitness during your time away from the pool. Don’t expect to swim well if you never touch the water and only do at-home band workouts, but when you’re in a pinch, this is a great alternative.

The post Beginner Training: How You Can Use Bands for a Better Swim first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

As I write this, I’m coming up a few months shy of my 41st birthday, and I’m sad to report that I’m now a man of a certain age that has to go through a series of activities and movements just to be able to function on a daily basis. Any type of athletic activity requires some degree of actual, honest-to-God warmup. If I’m driving to the pool, to one of my run loops, or to the golf course, you can guarantee the seat warmers are on in the car to try to loosen up my back. There’s no such thing as just ducking out for a quick three miles and a shower in under 30 minutes and be back on calls.

And heaven forbid I try to push my way through without doing any of this routine. Or, worse, I try to do it on consecutive days.

Here’s a recent example of what happens when I try to treat my body like I’m half my age. I rode my bike on Monday in a virtual race. I then ran on Tuesday morning without doing anything for dynamic warm up, then rode my bike hard again on Wednesday. Thursday I opted for a progression run, and then biked Friday and played golf Saturday. By Saturday night I couldn’t move; my hamstrings were locked up, my Achilles hurt, and my thoracic spine was unhappy where I’d broken it 12 years before.

Pro tip: don’t do that. You’re gonna have a bad time.

It’s a long way of saying that I need to take my warm-up and recovery more seriously. And though I do an OK job at the warm-up stuff, I am terrible at after (unless you’re talking the post-run / ride / athletic activity 16 or 20 ounce curl, at which point I am an expert). So I tasked myself with trying to take a look at some products that are more focused on the recovery end of the marketplace, thinking that perhaps it might force me into some better habits along the way.

Extract Labs reached out to me, asking if I’d like a sample pack for review. I accepted that offer; no other consideration or input came from the Extract team before this publication.

Extract Labs: Who They Are, and What They Do

Extract Labs started as a garage project for Chief Executive Officer Craig Henderson back in 2016. Henderson, an Army veteran, long had an interest in cannabis and extraction technology. He started putting together his own extracts (shoveling snow into buckets to keep the condensers cold) out of his garage and, well, the rest is history, as they say.

So, as you can guess, Extract Labs is a (mostly) CBD focused company. I say mostly as they now are offering mushroom extracts as well, but the majority of the product lines fall under the CBD bucket. For the uninitiated, CBD is one of the primary cannabinoids among more than 100 found in hemp. Cannabinoids are naturally occurring chemical compounds in the Cannabis sativa plant. In general, CBD can provide users with benefits without the psychoactive effects of THC. Under the Farm Bill of 2018, CBD derived from hemp, containing no more than 0.3% THC, is legal at the federal level in the United States.

Extract Labs makes three different lines of CBD products: CBD Isolate, broad spectrum CBD, and full spectrum CBD. As you can probably guess from the name, CBD Isolate is just that — there’s CBD and nothing else from the hemp plant. Broad spectrum CBD products, meanwhile, offer a range of cannabinoids and terpenes while containing no THC. Full spectrum CBD products do contain THC, but no more than 0.3% of the total content.

My package of Extract Labs samples contained a bottle of full-spectrum CBD gummies and the muscle / recovery topical roll-on.

The Products: Do They Work?

Let’s start off the with the muscle and recovery topical roll on. The roller contains 2000 milligrams of CBD, and a total of 50 milligrams of THC. In addition to those extracts, it also has menthol and arnica included in it. It smells nearly exactly like Vicks Vaporub. Unlike Vicks, though, I actually feel like something is working.

I’ve been dealing with some type of soft tissue pain in my lower right arm ever since I broke that wrist back in the winter of 2023. I don’t know if it’s the lack of flexibility in that wrist since, but I wind up dealing with forearm pain if I try typing too much, or writing for a long period of time, or hitting more than 50 or 60 golf balls with a full swing. At any rate, I’ve been throwing a lot at it trying to make it feel better.

The roll on seems to work best in a recovery setting. Other CBD products, like this MedTerra CBD roller, are better at being a pre-activity activation item. And at $90 for a single roller, in my opinion, it’s a tough sell.

On the flip side, the CBD gummies are excellent. Let’s start with the two negatives, which both tie back to the fact that they are a full spectrum product. First, if your employer is stuck in the Dark Ages and a positive THC test would result in a bad drug screening, you can’t use them. Second, there is a very mild psychoactive effect as there’s just under 2 milligrams of THC per gummy. Don’t operate heavy machinery, etc.

But they do, in fact, work, especially as a restorative sleep aid. I’ll give you two difference examples. First, my wife had major knee surgery over the winter, with a repair of a meniscus root tear. She’d been prescribed your typical painkillers and anti-inflammatories after surgery. She said that the prescribed medication did less for her compared to the Extract Labs CBD gummies. As for me, I found the Extract Labs gummies helped immensely with sleep and feeling well recovered in the morning. They were far more refreshing than using a traditional THC gummy, or a melatonin, and with none of the cobwebs that I usually experience the morning after.

They made me feel better. And really, waking up each day, that’s all I can ask for.

All Images: Extract Labs

The post Taking Recovery Slightly More Seriously with Extract Labs first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The level of cycling at the top of triathlon is pretty impressive. Cam Wurf really proved triathletes had bike legs when he was racing on both the IRONMAN circuit and for the INEOS Grenadiers WorldTour cycling team. Paula Findlay has repeatedly beaten WorldTour riders to take the Canadian national time trial title, and Taylor Knibb competed in the individual time trial at the Paris Olympics. It’s not surprising anymore to see top pros jump into WorldTour training camps (Georgia Taylor Brown and Laura Philipp, for starters), and who can forget the almost career change of Kristian Blummenfelt. In other words, there is already quite a lot of crossover between triathlon cycling and road cycling so, when it came to finding a diabolical suffer fest, we picked a deceptively demonic classic.

Some triathletes may have already encountered this standard cycling workout. It’s nothing new and, frankly, it doesn’t look like much on the page—but beware. When done correctly, it should bring you to your knees and make you question your entire life.

A Dreadful Classic

“The workout that all of my athletes dread the most, including myself, but also get the most out of, is the traditional 6 x 4 min VO2 w/ 4 min recovery,” says coach Jesse Moore. Along with over twenty years of coaching experience, Moore raced as a domestic pro in the USA and then did a short stint on the pro 70.3 circuit. He’s coached all levels of cyclists, including Dauphine winner Andrew Talansky (USA, Team Garmin/Sharp) and former US junior road race champion and current gravel racer Cole Davis. He also coaches triathletes from age groupers to pro, where his depth of cycling knowledge and experience influences his methodology—which is why he gives both cyclists and triathletes this dreaded classic.

“There have been lots of creative and effective HIIT ways to short-cut the physiological benefits of this old school suffer fest, but what they all miss is the mental toughness that comes out of not having the break from the psychological and panic-inducing pressure of having to hold that power, HR, and effort for four straight minutes with limited rest,” Moore explains. “All systems are maxed out, and learning how to manage the out-of-control feeling that tries to take hold is often the difference maker in real race selections.”

A Psychological Battleground

The psychological stress and mental toughness required is why this workout made the final cut for our series. While it looks somewhat innocent on paper, when performed correctly, it should push you to the brink physically, but also mentally.

“It’s a pure psychological battleground,” Moore says. “From the moment of dread when it shows up on the workout calendar, the self-doubt, phantom niggles or poor feelings during the warm-up, to the focus required to take them one at a time and not become overwhelmed by the totality of the task in front of you. It’s all pure gold come race day.”

Almost more than the physical execution of the workout, Moore evaluates the emotional reaction from his athletes–and they don’t hold back. 

“There’s a lot of cursing attached to my name on these days,” Moore jokes. “Athlete comments revolve around a lot of self-talk, negotiations with oneself about the size of the pizza they get to have if they just do one more, or selling their first born child if they could skip the last two.”

But that’s exactly what he is looking for. 

“Racing is hard, and managing one’s head before, during, and after is critical. You can only learn how to do that under real pressure, and this workout provides that opportunity to practice outside of a racing context,” he says. “To have calloused your mind against the stone this workout provides is often the difference maker between who says yes and who says no to that internal question when the moment of selection comes.”

The Workout: 6 x 4 minutes VO2

After a comprehensive warm-up, such as 30 minutes of easy riding with some short 20-60 second high intensity efforts to prepare the body, choose a stretch of road, either flat or on a hill, where you won’t be interrupted. If you don’t have a power meter, use Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) as your guide. If you have a power meter and train with power zones, use power as your primary metric (in conjunction with RPE). Heart rate isn’t useful here since it won’t respond in time. Your RPE on a scale of 1-10 should be 9-10—yes, it should feel incredibly hard, like you can’t possibly hold the power for the entire effort or session.

Ensure you are appropriately fueled. While the session is short, it is very demanding on the energy system. High octane power requires high octane fuel. A gel in the final parts of the warm-up, for example, is a great strategy if you’re used to using gels.

VO2’s To Make You Cry

Warm up: 20-30 minutes easy with 4 x 1 minute progressive 1-4 to 80%. Finish with 4 x 15″ sprints with 1-2 minutes in between.

6 x 4 minutes VO2 with 4 minutes rest

Warm down for 20-30 minutes, easy.

A word of caution: don’t start too hard. While the goal here is to sustain the maximum amount of power for the four minutes and across the entire session, sustained is the key word. Don’t start with a maximal sprint and taper off during the four minutes. Likewise, don’t smash the first 1-2 efforts and have the rest be mediocre. Rather start at a 9 RPE and build into maximal. A good way to approach the first effort is to perform it completely seated. Remember, this session should make you want to cry so it’s not for the faint of heart, head, or legs, but a modicum of control is necessary.

The rest can be as easy as you need. A quick unclip of 5-15 seconds is okay and soft pedaling is allowed. If you’re on a hill, an easy roll back down spinning the legs is perfect. However, make sure you do move your legs a little bit so they don’t tighten up.

When you’ve completed the efforts, ensure you do a full warm down of at least 20-30 minutes to calm the nervous system—and thank the universe that you’re still alive.

If you aren’t melting from the inside and having an existential crisis, you didn’t do it right. Got something harder? Let us know. 

The post Workouts That Will Make You Cry: Bike Edition first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

We’ve ventured deep into the world of swimming, cycling, and running to find the hardest workouts from each discipline. Workouts that have brought some of the best swimmers, cyclists, and runners to tears. Training sessions so demanding they’ve left permanent emotional scars—but also badges of honor. As triathletes, we get the pleasure of playing/suffering in three sports so we dare you to take on these sessions from single-sport athletes and coaches.

Get ready to cry, complain, and be humbled.

The Swim That Made a 5 X Olympian Cry

“Oh, do you want to hear about the set that made me cry?” Kasia Wasick laughs. The multiple Polish Olympian swimmer, world championship medallist, national record holder and European champion, is one of the fastest freestyle sprinters in the history of swimming. She can swim 50 m in 23.1—yeah, that fast. Specializing in the 50 m freestyle, her training is nothing short of heroic and brutal, and there is one set that she has only ever done—and will only ever do—once.

But, if there is one thing triathletes love, it’s a sufferfest. While triathletes are not training for the Olympic finals like Wasick, we all pride ourselves on our ability to train, how far we can push, and, hey, whatever gets you gains (and maybe some kudos on Strava), right? It’s a set that looks approachable on paper, but will cut you off at the knees, lungs and arms.

Wasick currently trains in Dallas but, when she did this “killer set,” she was swimming with notable coach Ben Loorz at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“I knew we were going to do a hard set, 20 x 25 meters sprint—which, when you hear 20 x 25, it’s not a big deal—but try to do it on 30 seconds, no breathing, and climb up every time to dive,” she remembers.

Yes, that’s right: 20 x 25 m max effort sprint from a dive, no breathing, on 30 seconds. 

“It’s a really hard set. I think it’s really advanced,” she says. That’s a bit of an understatement, as Wausick remembers the “tears in her goggles” from the overwhelming fatigue and oxygen debt.

“After six, I wanted to puke. I looked up and I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I just can’t do it,’” she says, the memory of fatigue influencing her voice. “On the eighth one, I climbed up and grabbed my knees. I looked up and I was melting down. But I saw the person in front of me and they were in the same pain. I could relate to them and that gave me energy. Everyone was in pain, and you don’t want to be the one weak person in the group.”

Wasick and her teammates did all twenty repetitions. “We all finished because we did it together. Everyone was feeling the energy of each other. The tears in my goggles disappeared.” 

Still, she laughs, “The dives were not pretty at the end.”

The main set did have a purpose. “You have to get into that fatigue. You have to feel that fatigue to execute a race really well and that is what helps you,” Wasick says. 

She isn’t just referring to the physical stress. Enduring and overcoming the mental test made an equal impression on her.

“Somehow I kept going and it was the worst set in my life but the most rewarding afterward. It felt so good to be able to do the set,” she pauses before continuing. “It’s really hard,” she adds one more time. 

Triathlon might be a completely different sport but the mental and physical stress is something they both have in common. If you’ve ever gone full gas at the start of a triathlon, you will have struggled to breathe properly in the chop and chaos of the elbows-out pack. Even beyond that, you might have to deal with tough water conditions like waves and current, bunch dynamics and race paces that put you under stress. Having the ability to mentally endure and push yourself physically in tough conditions is exactly what this kind of set will help prepare you for. It’s less about the times and more about performing under stress and not giving up.

Such an influential and memorable swim set begged one question: Would she ever do it again?

“No! I think I would miss that practice!”

So, you think you can hack an Olympic-level sprint swim set as a mere triathlete? Give it a try. (And let us know if you survive.)

The Workout: Sprint Until You Cry

Suggested Warm Up: 1500 m

600 (100 free, 25 progressive, 25 other stroke)

200 kick (15m hard, 35 easy)

4 x 50 with fins (25 under water, 25 recovery)

4 x 100 (15m break out speed, 35 moderate, 10-15m under water, 35 recovery)

100 easy

Wasick’s Main Set 500 m

20 x 25 m max effort sprint, from a dive (off the blocks), no breathing, on 30” 

Suggested Warm Down 800m

300 recovery backstroke kick/ backstroke swim

500 (200 free, 50 back) 

Got something harder? Let us know.

The post Workouts That Will Make You Cry: Swim Edition first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

If you’re new to triathlon (or even if you’ve been in the sport for a while), you might not know about all of the different training metrics. TrainingPeaks, the most popular platform used to monitor workouts, tracks a lot of data from your workouts, but if you’re not familiar with the different metrics and what they mean, the numbers aren’t going to be of much use to you. We are going to take a look at the many metrics of swimming, biking and running (all of which can be found on TrainingPeaks), breaking down how you can use each one to produce your best results.

Heart Rate

You may have heard athletes discussing different zones for workouts. Different coaches will define different zones (sometimes as many as seven), but most will break different training levels into five zones, with Zone 1 being the easiest and Zone 5 being the hardest – basically working at your maximum heart rate. The different zones are based on a percentage of your maximum heart rate, but how are you supposed to figure out what your max really is?

There is a simple formula often used to determine your max heart rate, but it may not be the most accurate. That said, it’s better than nothing. The most common formula used to determine max heart rate is 220 minus your age. From there, you can figure out your different zones.

Zone 1 is very light at 50 to 60 percent of your max heart rate (the BPM you should see during warmups). Zone 2 is 60 to 70 percent of max, which is what you’re aiming for on easy runs. Zone 3 is 70 to 80% (what some coaches may call “comfortably uncomfortable”), followed by the Zone 4 threshold pace, which is 80 to 90 percent of your max, and finally from 90 to 100 percent in Zone 5, which is reserved for short bursts and sprints.

If you want a more precise result, consider running a test to determine your lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR). This is a relatively simple test that you can do on your own with just a heart rate monitor and timer. It’s a 30-minute time trial (conducted at race pace), but you’re only going to record your heart rate for the final 20 minutes.

That 20-minute average will give you your LTHR. From there, you can input your LTHR into TrainingPeaks, which will then generate appropriate heart rate ranges for each zone.

Although this test is more precise than the 220 minus your age formula, it is still not perfect. If you don’t pace the 30-minute time trial well, it could skew your final results. To combat this, you can perform the test multiple times, dialling in the pacing and therefore getting a more accurate result.

Power for Cycling

Perhaps the most popular metric to track in cycling is power. It’s such a favourite of cyclists because it’s an objective metric that is not impacted by outside forces like wind or terrain. Simply put, it’s how hard you’re pushing your pedals. Your weight is also factored into the equation, making power a measure of watts per kilogram (w/kg).

As with heart rate, there is a test you can perform on your own to determine your power levels. It’s called a Functional Threshold Power (FTP) test, and it only takes 20 minutes. You can do this test outside, but best results will come inside on your trainer. If you want to take it on the road, you’ll need to find a very long stretch with no stops (no lights, no stop signs, nothing) and no descents. Even a quick stop or the slightest decline grade will mess with your results, which is why the indoor trainer is best for FTP tests.

Using a power meter or smart trainer to record your data, you’ll ride 20 minutes as hard as you can, trying to keep the power consistent from start to finish. Just like with the LTHR test, this might take a few tries to get right, as many people start too hard and fade toward the end of the 20 minutes (or vice versa, starting too slow and reaching the finish with more in the tank).

After this 20-minute ride, you’ll have your FTP. From there, you can calculate your w/kg by, you guessed it, dividing your FTP by your weight in kilograms. Generally, this number will be what you can hold for an hour on the bike, giving you a great gauge on what you’ll be capable of at different races.

Power for Running

Similar to cycling, power is a useful tool in running since it is independent of your training environment and is, instead, all about effort. Your pace can slow when you hit a hill or run into a headwind and your heart rate can spike in hotter conditions or at higher altitudes, but your power will remain consistent in all settings.

Some running watches can calculate power. There are also pod devices that strap to your shoe and can connect to your watch, or phone, to show you your power data. Unlike in cycling, a bit more info goes into determining running power. Whatever device you choose to track it will look at your weight, pace, cadence, stride rate and more to come up with your power reading.

Once you have a way to measure your power, how do you figure out your zones? Continuing the trend set above, there is a test you can run. Once again, it is an FTP test, and all you need to do is run a hard 5K time trial. As with the other tests, treat this like a race and try to run at a pace you think you can hold for the full 5K. After the run, your average power for the effort will be your FTP, which you will then divide by your weight in kilograms.

Training Stress Score

Training stress score (TSS) is something you might have seen on TrainingPeaks, too. It is rated on a scale up to 100 per hour of training. A score of 100 means you spent a full hour at your maximum, whether that is based on power, heart rate, pace, or perceived effort. A one-hour workout at 50 percent exertion will earn you 50 TSS.

This score is completely subjective, meaning that if a rookie triathlete did a workout with a pro and they both rode at their limit for an hour, they would both record 100 TSS for the day. If you have a multiple-hour session, the TSS will be broken down by the hour. That means that if you worked out at 50 TSS for three hours, you’ll hit 150 TSS on the day. You can assign a TSS to each workout on TrainingPeaks, creating a graph for the year to show your training efforts day in and day out.

Acute Training Load

The acute training load (ATL) represents your fatigue (or projected fatigue). TrainingPeaks will look at your training from the past seven days and calculate on estimate of your fatigue. This can help you and your coach determine whether you need to take your foot off the gas a bit (if you’ve been doing too many days and workouts at high TSS), if you can afford to push a bit more (if your TSS has been middling or lower in the past week) or if you’ve got your schedule set up just right.

Further, you can use past ATL stats to shape your current and upcoming training schedules. If you have a race coming up in a month and you want to nail your build, you can look back at the weeks leading up to similar race from a past season to see what sort of training load you were dealing with then. If you nailed that past build and race, you can copy it (or keep it relatively similar) this time around.

Chronic Training Load

TrainingPeaks will use your TSS to determine your chronic training load (CTL), which pertains to your fitness. The CTL takes your training from the past 42 days and figures out your current fitness rating based on those workouts. This stat is ever-changing, with each new day of training impacting it more than the last (meaning if you have a few days of low TSS, your fitness rating will dip, while high TSS brings it up).

Training Stress Balance

As you might have noticed, CTL and ATL are directly linked, as a higher TSS will bump the numbers up in both categories. The key is to balance it out well enough to keep your fitness rating high without putting too much strain on your body with a too-high ATL. How can you figure out the right balance? With TrainingPeaks’ training stress balance (TSB) score.

The TSB subtracts your ATL from your CTL every day to produce what TrainingPeaks calls the Form. The Form shows a graph with a constantly changing line, sometimes driving high, sometimes dipping low. This will show you if you’re fit and ready to race (or ready to keep pushing hard in training) or if you’re fit, but too fatigued and need a bit of a break.

The TSB is perhaps the most important stat to keep an eye on if you use TrainingPeaks, as it will keep you informed on a daily basis and allow you to perfect your training schedule, promoting growth and development as an athlete and preventing sickness and injuries.

Normalized Power

While the power metrics listed above are all about averages, normalized power (NP) looks at the physiological cost of different power levels. The NP algorithm on TrainingPeaks puts more weight on high-intensity efforts, giving you a more accurate reading and a better estimate on your TSS, CTL, ATL and more.

Normalized Graded Pace

We have already noted how different terrains and running routes can impact numbers outside of power (especially your pace). That is where normalized graded pace (NGP) can come in handy. The NGP will look at GPS files from your runs, taking in the changes in grade and intensity of the workout on different terrains. It will then give you a new score with your original pace in mind. This way, you can compare a flat and fast 5K time trial to a hilly run or a tough outing on the trails and get an accurate read on how much better one is than the other.

Distance Per Stroke

Have you ever been swimming next to someone and noticed that your stroke rate is one and a half or even double theirs? You may be going the same speed as them, but who do you think will be able to go faster or farther — the swimmer taking more strokes or the one doing half as many?

That’s right, the swimmers with the most efficient strokes will fare better than those who are muscling their way through the water. A stat you might have noticed on your watch is distance per stroke, or DPS. DPS is just as it sounds: how far can you go with each stroke? The farther you go, the fewer strokes you’ll need to take over the course of a full swim. This will save your energy, helping you not only go faster in the swim overall, but also on the bike and run on race day.

Cadence

While in the pool you’re looking to take as few strokes as possible, it’s a bit different in running and cycling. When it comes to cadence on the run and on the bike, a higher number is actually better. For cycling, if you have a higher cadence (the number of pedal rotations per minute), it means you’re able to push farther and go faster. Likewise in running, a higher cadence means you’re taking shorter strides, reducing your impacts on joints and running more efficiently.

Rate of Perceived Exertion

What is rate of perceived exertion (RPE)? It’s simply a scale from one to 10 that you use to rate how hard you think a workout is or was. You can use the above metrics like power and heart rate to help you determine the RPE of a workout, but really it’s all about what you felt in the moment.

Was it hard, but manageable? It might be around a seven. Were you going at a pace you could only hold for a short sprint? Probably a nine or 10. Was the swim, bike or run light and easy? Likely a five or below.

It may seem like RPE is a useless stat since you have so many other objective numbers available to you, but it’s actually quite necessary to get in tune with your body and abilities. If your watch or power meter die on race day, you need to have a general idea of what you’re capable of doing for the length of the race. If you have no clue how hard to push without the numbers telling you what pace you’re currently going, then you risk either blowing up after pushing too hard or reaching the finish with way too much energy left.

The post Breaking Down the Numbers: What Different Training Metrics Mean first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Training camps are a great opportunity for any athlete to boost fitness, learn new skills and connect with people–or just have a cheeky holiday doing what they love. But they can also be expensive and intimidating with overwhelming logistics. From budget to luxury camps, deciding which camp is right for you can be a tricky choice. 

Experience First 

Australian coach Nick Kastelein (winner of IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz (2022) and Jan Frodeno’s training partner for many years) runs training camps in Girona, Spain and Kyoto, Japan, and says the first question isn’t really about what you can afford, but what kind of experience you’re looking to have. 

“Athletes should consider the experience they want to get out of the camp, whether it’s performance, immersive, cultural or a mix of everything,” he says. To figure out what experience a camp is offering, check out the posted schedule and read reviews from previous athletes.

Performance camps are probably what most people think of. The proverbial eat, sleep, train and nothing else. But even performance-focused camps can be a little bit more. Consider who you want to be around and what you want the focus to be. Do you want big group meals and lots of coffee stops on rides? Do you want to get in as much volume as possible, or ride to a beautiful spot for lunch, or maybe both? And, if you’re going to a unique location, do you want to participate in cultural activities? If you’re planning to take your family, or a non-training partner, are there options for them?

Even when Kastelein was on camp as a pro, the overall experience was the most important factor for him, and that’s something that has informed how he curates his camps.

“Learning from others is one key aspect,” he begins. “How others recover, what they eat, their positive attitudes towards bad days–it all counts. My greatest takeaways from the training camps I went on was the camaraderie in the day-to-day suffering, and the power of positive reinforcement and support from others around you. Having a good training routine also allows you to mentally rehearse each day and get the best out of it.”

Whether you want to learn from highly seasoned professionals, or be surrounded by others who want to explore your location, figuring out the experience you’re looking for will ensure you get the most out of your training camp. 

Ability Level

Another concern athletes are always worried about when joining a camp is ability. No one likes to hold a group up or be completely out of their depth, but Kastelein says that shouldn’t be the reason you stay home. 

“Most camps should cater to all abilities,” he says, explaining how his camps plan specifically to “blend abilities.” If that doesn’t ease your mind, or the information isn’t straightforward, Kastelein says you can always “ask for a clear set of performance standards from the organizer.” 

Ok, But Cost Still Counts…

“Everyone’s wallet weighs differently,” Kastelein says. “Accommodation is the biggest factor, but I don’t think price affects the overall experience of the camp hosts and what they can provide through knowledge and experience.”

Making decisions by recognizing how your money is being spent will help inform the camp you choose. Set your goals, recognize what kind of experience you want to have, pick your budget and choose from there. 

$150 or Less: The “I Just Need to Get Focused Training Done” Stay-cation Camp  

The benefits here are obvious: it won’t cost you anything more than normal training. The drawbacks are that it’s only really a mental shift. You won’t get the benefits of being away from the general distractions of everyday life, a different training location, or in person coaching but, if that’s all you can afford, you can still get a training boost.

To execute a home training camp, pick a time and make the commitment. Invite other training friends (near or far) to do the same so you can suffer together. Block off your calendar as if you were going away and let your partner/family know things will be different for a week or two. Live like you are on training camp with the primary focus on training, sleeping, eating and disconnecting from everything else to boost recovery. Spoil yourself with a massage, work on some technique that you just “never have the time” for, and get in an extra helping of training (and carbs). 

$400+: The DIY Camp

Create your own adventure. You can go as big or as fancy as you want, but, for this list, let’s assume this is the next step up from staying at home. Choose a great location that has all the necessities–pool, great training roads, hopefully good weather–and book yourself (and your mates) into an AirBnB or hotel. Have your coach plan the training load, or plan the time out yourself, figure out the travel logistics (including to and from the pool), and ensure you check out routes and pool/gym access before you go. There is a lot of leg work and planning with this option, but it can be more affordable and tailored to your preferences. 

You’ll miss out on expert advice and coaching, but you can invite friends, training partners, or make it a family holiday to boost the experience. To make it easier, check out well-known training camp locations like Boulder, Tucson, Andorra, Girona, Noosa, Mallorca or the Canary Islands where there are often sport hotels, like this one, that offer triathlon packages. 

$400-$1000: All Thrills, No Frills Basic Camp

There are a lot of packaged training camps out there and a good many of them are trying to be affordable. Often organized by coaches or clubs, they offer accommodation (often with a sharing option), coached training sessions and organized pool access. There are often optional extras like video analysis in the pool, massages, or performance testing, but the focus is more on fun and just getting out there to experience your destination through the modalities of swim, bike and run. Usually accommodation is basic and food is partially, or not, included. 

$800-$2000: Seriously Fun Intermediate Amenities Camp 

More intermediate training camps will have a performance focus and are often organized by coaches, clubs, training camp businesses, or retired pros like Kastelein camps or this one hosted by Emma Bilham and Jo Spindler. (You can even get a performance test from IRONMAN legend and Kona 2019 champion Anne Haug if you’re on camp in Lanzarote, Spain.) Training will be more structured and organized thanks to the coaches on hand, and there will be an emphasis on boosting fitness and skill. Performance testing, massage and consultations might be optional extras. The hotels are usually midrange or higher, and often food is somewhat organized with considerations for other annoying logistics like airport transfers. Locations are usually pretty spot on too. 

The intermediate camps are often the sweet spot for most people, and typically where most camps fall in terms of delivery and amenities. There is a breadth of options and prices (and vibes, from serious to very relaxed, cultural to high performance) in this category and, with such a wide net, you’re in a good spot to get a high return on your time and money. 

$2000+: A Bit of Lux Camp 

Fancy camps start to bring in premium accommodation, excellent support staff beyond the primary coaches and offer extras like tailored nutrition and vehicle support on rides, possibly even a mechanic. There are a range of experiences available, but food and hotels will be on the high end–which is usually where the price ramps up. You might be training alongside an active or recently retired professional, have your nutrition prepared for you, and logistics are usually taken care of from the moment you arrive. 

Price Upon Request:  I Have Better Equipment Than Most Pros Camp

Private chefs, massages, vehicle support, training alongside professionals, bike mechanics, top-end experienced coaches and possibly only with exclusive access or custom designed just for you. This is the dream experience–that comes with a hefty price tag–and all you have to do is swim, bike and run (as much or as little as you want), and everything else is taken care of for you. 

The post A Pro Guide to Training Camps at Every Budget first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

There is a popular book titled Atomic Habits by American writer James Clear that holds an important lesson for triathletes. This is a self-help book, and while many reads in this genre can be full of platitudes and hollow messages, there is at least one story that Clear tells that is worthwhile. (I have to be honest, I haven’t read the entire book, so I can’t be sure that the rest of it lives up to this excerpt.) It’s a story about the British cycling team, a climb out of irrelevance and marginal gains, and it lays out a practice that everyone — triathlete or not — can use to improve day by day.

Reshaping British Cycling

As Clear explains in his book, British Cycling underwent a changing of the guard in 2003 with the hiring of a new performance director, Dave Brailsford. At that point, no Brit had ever won the Tour de France, and in the past century, Great Britain had only one Olympic gold medal in the history books. In a matter of just a few years, however, Brailsford transformed British Cycling, taking it from being something of a laughing stock to one of the powerhouses of the sport.

He accomplished this with a focus on marginal gains. Instead of looking at the British team through a macro lens and trying to make big, sweeping changes to training programs, equipment, and whatever else, he went micro, searching for small changes — and a lot of them.

“The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by one percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together,” Brailsford says in Atomic Habits

Some of these small changes were directly related to cycling (such as redesigning bike seats to maximize comfort, as Clear writes), but many of them had no solid connection to the act of riding a bicycle at all.

Brailsford’s team tested pillows and mattresses, finding the ideal combination for each athlete to help deliver them the best sleep every night. A surgeon taught the riders how to wash their hands so they could minimize the risk of getting sick. They developed a system to monitor for dust (yes, he want that micro) so they could keep the team bikes perfectly clean and avoid even the slightest of technical issues.

The result? In 2008, five years into Brailsford’s time as performance director, British Cycling took home 60 percent of all gold medals in track and road cycling at the Beijing Olympics. At the next Summer Games in 2012 (on home soil in London), British cyclists continued their dominance, setting nine Olympic records and seven world records.

Brits also found success in the Tour de France, with Bradley Wiggins winning the three-week race in 2012, followed by Chris Froome in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017. In a matter of years, British Cycling became one of the top national programs in the world, and it was all thanks to focusing on marginal gains and small improvements.

One Percent Better

“It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis,” Clear writes in Atomic Habits. “Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action.”

Buying that new featherweight bike with the unparalleled aero profile is going to help you be faster on race day. That training camp you’re going to this spring will help, too, and so will your $300 carbon-plated shoes and all of those supplements you take each morning.

There are plenty of big changes that can be made to give you big improvements in training and racing in this very moment, but they can be pricey and a lot of them are one-time boosts. Sure, your crazy-fast new bike will still be just as light and just as aerodynamic a year from now, but are you going to be satisfied if you hit a plateau on it and don’t continue to improve. That’s what marginal gains can do as you focus to get just a little bit better with every passing day.

“Here’s how the math works out,” Clear writes. “[I]f you can get [one] percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.”

You won’t see improvements from these marginal gains right away. You probably won’t notice them until you look at your times in training and racing. It’s like going to the gym, doing a killer workout and looking at yourself in the mirror afterward. You’re going to look the same as you did when you walked into the gym earlier. Same with the next day and the day after that and so on until, eventually, you see a photo of yourself from that first day and realize you’re way thinner, way more toned, way more fit now after months of hard work.

Marginal Gains for Triathlon

What are some marginal gains you can apply to your everyday life that will help you as a triathlete? Using British Cycling’s example, look for comfort in your equipment. It’s great to have a lightweight, aero bike, but if you’re uncomfortable on it (whether that’s due to the seat, the fit or something else), you’re likely going to end up being slower than you would be on a slightly heavier or less-aero, but more comfortable, frame. This is the case for any distance of racing, but the longer you go (56 miles for a half-distance race, 112 miles for a full), the more time you’ll lose because the growing discomfort will force you to adjust your positioning and eliminate any aerodynamic boosts the bike promised you.

Fast running shoes are awesome if they work for you, but everyone’s feet are different. Just like with your ride, you need to find the right shoes for your feet, and if those end up being heavy stability shoes that experts would say are only good for training runs, then so be it. You’ll have a hard time finishing a race if your feet aren’t well-protected, so some people will actually save more time on the run course by picking what are generally seen as the “slower” options in footwear.

Now look at sleep. You know sleep is the best recovery method available to you, but so many people don’t get enough of it. Get one percent better by prioritizing sleep, whether that’s getting to bed 30 minutes earlier than you do now, eliminating screen usage before bed or finding the best pillow-mattress combo like the British Cycling riders.

Think about how you fuel in training. It’s easy to lose track of your day, realize you have to rush to do a workout and wind up completing the session on an empty stomach or under-fuelled. If you even do this once a week, you’ll be throwing away valuable mileage that won’t be completed to your top potential. A small change with a huge impact on your training and overall fitness can be consciously carving out time before every training session so you can eat and properly digest your food before hitting the pool, bike, road or gym.

There are so many more tiny changes you can make in your everyday life that will snowball into big gains overall. The key is to remember the progress won’t be visible right now, but if you remain consistent with these adjustments, you’ll see just how far you’ve come as you carry on down the road.

The post Using Marginal Gains to Reach New Heights in Triathlon first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

He’ll turn 50 this August, but that hasn’t slowed Canadian Ed Veal one bit. Next month the season starts up, and Veal will be representing the Automatic Racing team at events across the United States. Competing in the American criterium circuit, Veal routinely finds himself racing shoulder to shoulder with riders half his age (and sometimes even younger than that). At some events, he’ll even enter the 40+ race and use it as a warm up before the pro event gets started.

As far as Veal is concerned, the key to his longevity in the sport has always been his strength. He didn’t get into the sport until he was in his 30s, but his previous work experience helped him become the athlete he is today.

“When I started, it was like a blue collar thing,” he remembers. “We had a family business installing oil tanks and cast boilers and, as my dad’s helper, into my 30s I was doing this heavy lifting. It was like farm strength.”

Over the years, though, as he pursued a cycling career that included time on the Canadian Track Endurance Program where he competed at the UCI Track World Championships in 2016 and was part of the bronze-medal winning team pursuit squad at the Pan Am Games, the Canadian one-hour record (48.587 km, since broken by Lionel Sanders, who went 51.304 km) and Paralympic appearances as a tandem pilot, that strength started to slip away. Realizing how important maintaining strength was to his career, he turned to the gym.

“It started off as a little bit of gym work, then became a little more serious,” he remembers. “Now I’m pretty much in the gym seven days a week.”

“Well, I’m including mobility and I do a lot of core stuff,” he continues. “Some of it is therapy, some of it is just feeling good. That’s the same on the bike – I’m on the bike seven days a week, too. Every day, when I’m doing this, it confirms that I’m an athlete.”

In fact, the first thing he does when he wakes up is head to the mat.

“I wake up and the very first thing I do, I go to the yoga mat,” he says, conceding that he’ll often grab a coffee on the way. “I do the whole mobility thing while I’m groggy. I think of injury prevention, or just being an old man that’s getting creaky and old. I don’t even feel like an athlete, but I get on the mat, start moving, and then I’m like ‘okay I can attack the day.’”

Some yoga movements flow into planks and side planks – his “nemesis.” Planks are followed by push-ups. Then there are lunges for hip flexors that are “usually smashed daily.” A windshield motion with his legs to crack his back. There’s nothing fancy to that initial mat work – just consistency.

Veal is a staunch advocate of single-leg work for cyclists. Cycling involves using one leg at a time, so that should be an emphasis for your strength training.

“If you’re gonna do a press, try and do a single leg,” he suggests. “A Bulgarian split – anything that would be more cycling specific because what we’re doing is one leg at a time.”

Veal is quick to acknowledge the differences in strength required for a track or road-racing sprinter versus a triathlete. He’s been in races with sprinters putting out 2,000 watts or more. And then, at the other extreme, last November Veal competed at IRONMAN Arizona.

“When I’m hanging out with triathletes, they’ll say they didn’t event know that 2,000 watts was a thing,” he laughs. Track sprinters, he says, are “like gorillas” with insanely strong upper bodies and core muscles, and lots of raw force. Years of back pain taught him the importance of having a strong core for cycling.

“My back would get sore, but it was actually a weak core, so my back was doing more work,” he says. “Once I started putting more core work into my program, my back pain went away.”

While he didn’t train very much for his IRONMAN Arizona appearance last fall, he was pleasantly surprised at how much his upper-body strength work helped his swimming.

“I got in the pool and everyone’s like ‘wow you’re a great swimmer,'” he says. “I could actually pull some water and I felt like a monster.”

The Gym Complements, It Doesn’t Replace

Veal’s gym time involves constant movement. Chest presses followed immediately by core exercises or other exercises.

“I’m the weirdo in the gym doing squats in between my chest reps,” he laughs. “It’s not like one crazy workout today because I’m working at it again tomorrow, stacking these little incremental gains.”

As important as the strength work in the gym might be, Veal emphasizes that the goal should be to spend as much time on the bike as you can. That’s where, for most people, the true bike-specific strength work will be achieved. What should those who do need to develop more power be doing?

“That single leg stuff in the gym,” he says. “Single leg leg press, those Bulgarian split squats – even without weight those are nasty.”

The “farm” strength from all those days of lifting boilers and oil tanks might be gone, but it’s been replaced with a seven-day-a-week gym routine.

While that’s not realistic for most of us, there is a lot we all can learn from Veal’s approach. Adding mobility and core exercises to our daily routine probably isn’t a bad idea. Ensuring our gym-time is focused on complementing our bike training is another. It probably won’t propel you to a 2,000-watt sprint at a pro criterium race, but it certainly can help net a faster bike split this summer.

Key Exercises

Following Veal around the gym involves lots of motion. He moves from one exercise to the next based as much as on availability as anything else. Here’s a few of the exercises he did during the session we were at:

The post Still Racing Pro At 49: Check Out the Gym Routine that Keeps Ed Veal Going Strong first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The indoor versus outdoor debate is no longer seasonal. With increasingly better platforms, better smart trainers, and more data-driven training, indoor training has become a year-round tool. So, the question is no longer which is better but what adaptation are you seeking?

Foul weather or other basic matters that make inside training an obvious compromise don’t necessitate more discussion. And, for numerous reasons–from bike handling and pacing skills to just plain joy–there is no debate that outside riding can ever be replaced. So, assuming that you are training with a purpose and following a structured training program: When should you choose outside over in? How do you convert an outdoor session to an indoor one? And why should you always be considering which is best for every session? 

Why should you always consider riding inside?

Riding inside offers one massive advantage: control. There is no weather, traffic, or imperfect terrain to interfere with your prescribed session. You can control, or at least influence, every variable from cadence to temperature. You can set a smart trainer at a certain power output, you can stay in the aero position for as long as you like, and execute a structured session to perfection. 

Of course, all of the good things about indoor training come at a cost. Thermal control might pose a problem, as well as cardiac drift, since it’s near impossible to get the same cooling effects as outside in a home set up; there is no skill development or bike handling challenge, and, as much as virtual platforms and music can make it fun, there is no denying it can be tedious. 

Nevertheless, there is a reason why many pros even opt for an inside session in the middle of summer. The control–and challenge that control brings–is simply unmatched since there is nowhere to hide. There are no hairpin corners or descents or even slight terrain changes to offer microseconds of respite, you simply have no choice but to pedal constantly. While that makes indoor training incredibly efficient, it makes it equally difficult–which can seem like a negative but, as endurance athletes who love to suffer, we all know that’s actually a positive.

When should you choose inside over outside?

Putting aside that every workout can be executed outside, some sessions can offer more inside. For triathletes especially, those sessions include race pace and threshold work where you want to stay in aero. Over/unders, where you’re holding a high aerobic power and bumping up into threshold only to come back to high aerobic power, is a good example of a great inside session since it negates any micro rests between changes and forces the precise power. Longer sessions in the aero bars can’t be matched outside, especially since you can do them safely and even with a mirror to really work on your position and position durability. 

Skill development might be best done outside, but that doesn’t mean the indoor trainer has nothing to offer in that department. High and low cadence efforts can work well inside, as does one leg pedaling. Without the worry of bike handling, you can truly relax in the effort to engage your core and train your pelvic stability without gripping the bars or worrying about external factors. 

How do you convert an outdoor session to an indoor one? 

In the past, time and distance were always the metrics used for conversion, but that’s a bit of a misnomer. The gold standard is to match intended stimulus. Matching the intended TSS (training stress score) or IF (intensity factor) is more accurate. Time should still be considered since inside offers continuous load, but the reduction in time should aim to yield the same TSS or IF.  Alternatively, as German pro Dr. Merle Brunnee prefers, you can also you energy expenditure as measure, using by kilojoules as your metric. For example, a 3-hour aerobic ride can be reduced to a 2.5-hour ride, both aiming for an IF of 0.70, or a TSS of 130, or 1,200 kilojoules.

Intervals can be matched exactly, but power can be difficult to reproduce. Some athletes can match their indoor and outdoor power numbers, while others need to reduce their indoor targets slightly. Using the whole range of your power zone with heart rate data and RPE (rate of perceived exertion) will give you guidance for if, and how, you need to adjust. For example, if your threshold zone is 250 to 270 watts, outside you might be closer to 270 watts, whereas inside 250 watts might feel the same and be enough to yield the same desired result.  It’s important not to let your ego get in the way here–listen to your body feedback and objectively adjust.

What should you watch out for training inside?

Temperature control, as mentioned above, can be difficult. Without the cooling effects of the air outside, it is essential to have a fan and adjust your fluid and electrolyte intake. Heat stress can significantly impact performance, so stay cool and hydrated. 

ERG mode can be your best friend or your worst enemy. ERG mode is a fantastic tool to ensure you’re staying on the prescribed watts, but if your cadence drops and the trainer adjusts making it feel too heavy to turn the pedals, choose another mode of resistance. 

Don’t forget to ride outside. Training inside is great for physical stimulus and even mental toughness, but it will do nothing about teaching you how to descend a mountain pass, ride in a peloton, pace your efforts yourself, or give you the same amount of joy as summiting a mountain or winning the group ride town sign sprint. Even pedaling outside is different and, since most of us are aiming to race and perform outside, use indoor training when necessary or more effective, not as a complete replacement. 

The post Indoor vs Outdoor Bike Training: The Real Question You Need to Be Asking first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Pro long distance triathlete Merle Brunnee made her presence known at Ironman Nice in 2024–she finished third and impressively out-biked Lucy Charles-Barclay. Three months later, on the same course, she finished 14th at the IRONMAN World Championship. The following year Brunnee earned herself a Kona slot at Ironman Lanzarote, finishing third to Charles-Barclay again. She rounded out her season with a podium finish (third) at the famously mountainous full distance French race, Embrun, and a sixth-place finish at Challenge Roth, where she posted the fastest bike split–3:29 faster than Laura Philipp. Oh yeah, and she became the world duathlon champion too.

It was no surprise, then, that her leg power got her noticed by the German cycling federation. Brunnee was selected to represent her country at the 2025 Esport World Championship, where she finished fourth. As if all of this wasn’t impressive enough, sport is just a side hustle for the 31-year-old. Brunnee works full-time as a doctor in the neuro-radiology department at the University Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. 

To make everything possible, there is one tool that Brunnee relies on: indoor training. Being able to train according to her work hours and through the dark, cold German winters is essential. While most of us won’t ever be able to beat Charles-Barclay on the bike, she can still provide some valuable insights based on how she sets up, approaches and executes her indoor training. 

Slowtwitch: You raced the Esport World Championships for Germany. How is racing inside different to racing outside and what did you learn from that experience, especially as a triathlete?

Merle Brunnee: Racing indoors is very different from racing outdoors because the demands you have for the task are very different. As a long-distance triathlete, or racing at middle distance, outdoors is all about pushing high numbers for a long time. You need a high FTP and consistent power over a long duration. But indoors is very different because those races are often no longer than about an hour, and in the world championships, the races were around 15 to 20 minutes. Indoor racing has a completely different stress profile. I have to be punchy, sprint, counterattack and really check what others are doing, because when they attack or someone breaks away, I have to respond tactically. 

Outdoors, I don’t have as much of that. I’m more of a back-of-the-pack swimmer, so I’m often on the bike alone, just racing against myself, trying to catch others, but not having that group dynamic. Also, indoor racing has a draft effect, which is really important, whereas in triathlon, especially now with the 20-meter drafting rule, there’s basically no drafting, so I can just do my own thing. And, yes, high numbers and a strong FTP are still crucial; the strongest will always win, but it’s a very different stress profile. 

What I learned most as a triathlete is not so much a technical skill, but that racing and training indoors is a huge motivation for me. Competing against the best in the world, comparing and racing really fuels me. I’m just a very competitive person, and this gives me the best motivation, and I really benefit from that.

Take us through your indoor set up.

I have a really good indoor setup and I really enjoy it. My room is actually my working space as well. On one hand, it’s my office where I do my research—because I’m not only a triathlete, but also a doctor. When I’m at home working, I sit there, but I have a height-adjustable desk. So, when I switch from working as a doctor to training as a triathlete, I just raise the desk.

I have two different turbo trainers: a Wahoo KICKR V6 and an Elite Justo. I have both because I have different cassettes: one with an 11-speed cassette for my time trial bike, and another with a 12-speed cassette for my road bike. It’s convenient because I don’t have to swap cassettes. I also use different virtual platforms—sometimes I just ride freely, but mostly I use Zwift and MyWhoosh. I enjoy both; Zwift is probably my favorite, but it depends on the day.

For music, sometimes I just listen to music, especially when I’m doing intervals, since I don’t want to focus on a podcast or a show. On easy rides, I usually watch the news to stay updated, or sometimes I listen to podcasts, movies, or, what I like most, I call friends who are also on the turbo—so the time just flies by. 

I usually have at least one fan; in the summer or during intense rides, I have two. One is a small one blowing directly on me, and the other is a Wahoo Headwind on the floor. I think having a lot of airflow is crucial because, when you ride indoors, you can overheat quickly—especially me, since I ride indoors in the summer. So, it’s really important. I also have a nice light scene—different light strips, like Philips Hue—so I can create a really good atmosphere when I train. It’s not exactly cozy, but it’s a great environment, and I really like it.

Do you enjoy training inside? Do you prefer it?

That’s not an easy question, I think. I mean, yes, I do enjoy training indoors, but I don’t prefer it. There are a lot of advantages, though. First, of course, is wintertime. I live in Heidelberg, Germany, so we have a cold, wet and dark winter. Also, since I work as a doctor in the hospital, I have to train around that, which means I’m often off work when it’s dark. In the winter, I don’t really want to ride outside in the wet, cold and dark—it’s not fun, and it’s a bit dangerous. So, in winter, I definitely prefer riding indoors. But especially now, as winter is ending, I’m really craving summer—riding outdoors, because time just flies by so much faster.

When it’s nice weather, do you still train indoors? If so, why?

Yes, I do train indoors all year round, and there are a few reasons for that. Probably the biggest one is that indoor training is very time-efficient. If I want to hit specific numbers or targets, it’s easier indoors—especially when I don’t have good terrain nearby. For example, on my time trial bike, when I want to do long race efforts—like 20 to 30 minutes at race pace—it’s really hard to find a safe, quiet stretch outdoors without traffic lights or cars. Of course, shorter intervals can be done outside, but it’s often easier to be precise indoors.

Another big advantage is nutrition. For long rides, I also do them indoors—on the turbo trainer—and I keep everything right beside me: gummies, gels, carbs, hydration—no need to stop or buy anything. Also, I’m independent of daylight, which is really nice—especially in spring and fall—when the days aren’t that long. I can start whenever I want and not worry about daylight. So, it’s easy—I don’t have to ride anywhere to begin. I just hop on the turbo. I do live in Heidelberg, which has great conditions for outdoor training—there are hills right outside my door, and the city is small—so it’s really easy. But still, sometimes I prefer doing key sessions indoors.

Are there any sessions that are better indoors? Outdoors?

As I said, I definitely prefer riding outdoors. Most of my easy rides or rides with friends are, of course, outdoors. That’s what makes it fun—riding with friends, being in nature, seeing the landscape. I’m really lucky because I have beautiful nature where I live, and when I’m on a training camp or on vacation, it’s just the most beautiful thing—climbing new hills, discovering new passes and really enjoying it. That’s what makes it worth it. So, most of the rides—like the endurance rides, when I don’t have specific numbers or targets—are definitely better outside, especially if I have people to train with. But, as I said, when I have specific goals, when I’m short on time, or when I need exact training, I do prefer riding indoors.

How do you convert outdoor training sessions to indoor ones? What do you change? Any quick rules people can follow?

You can definitely do your outdoor training sessions indoors, but you need to remember that a 90-minute indoor session usually has more training load than a 90-minute outdoor ride, since outdoors you have free riding—like coasting downhill—where you push zero watts, or are stopped at traffic lights. So, 90 minutes indoors is definitely more intense. For intervals, I don’t change that much, because I still keep my targets—for example, when I do five by four minutes, I don’t really adjust it. You just need to ask yourself if you want to ride in ERG mode—where the trainer gives you a set resistance—or if you want to do a free ride aiming for your best average. I do both, and I don’t think one is always better—sometimes I just can’t stand ERG mode, but other days, it’s easier because I just have to hold the power. So, I recommend people try both and see what works best.

And for anyone struggling to hit their numbers indoors—except for endurance rides—I’d suggest doing races. Every platform has races you can join, and racing against others is a big motivation for me. I also recommend not being too strict with the intervals—when you’re outdoors, you can just do, say, four by ten minutes or ride a local hill as fast as you can and go for the Strava KOM—same goes for indoors. If you don’t want to do exact intervals, try a hilly race or something that mimics those efforts. Be open to alternatives—there isn’t just one way. Keep what works for you, and go with what you can manage.

Can you give examples of how you convert power and time from indoor to outdoor? Do you aim for a certain TSS? Is the conversion different for base riding compared to, for example, VO2 intervals?

What I can recommend is using TSS, and I do rely on it, but another good option is just tracking the total work you see on the bike computer or platform. You can aim for a target, like a 1,000-kilojoule ride, not just to count calories, but as a motivational benchmark. So, you can hit that same work total outdoors, but it might take longer because of traffic or lights. Indoors, though, it’s easier to have that stable metric. So, instead of always relying on TSS, some people use total work as a goal. For base riding, yes, outdoor rides are usually longer. As I said, two or three hours indoors is often more intense. But, for VO2 max intervals, I don’t really adjust them—they stay the same. I just try to hit my best average, whether it’s indoors or outdoors. For me, the intervals don’t need adjusting—just the base rides.

You can’t train bike handling inside, so is that something you consider? Are there any riding techniques that you work on indoors?

I think bike handling is crucial for many races, and it’s really important to train it. It’s more vital in some races than in others. For example, the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice versus the one in Hawaii—I think in Nice, it’s crucial to have the confidence to ride fast on the TT bike downhill and handle unexpected issues in the street—like potholes or speed bumps. You really need to practice that in training and get a feel for it. In Hawaii, you don’t really need that—you just go straight down the road with only one major turn—so it’s not technical at all. But, for many races, having a feel for the bike is key—understanding what happens in different conditions, like wind. I remember the IRONMAN in Lanzarote last year, where I qualified for Hawaii—the wind was intense, and because I was used to it, I knew how to handle it—even with my disc wheel. But, if you’re not used to it, it can really ruin your race. 

At the same time, indoors, you can stay in the aero position for a long time. There’s no need to get out, so you can see if you’re comfortable holding that position from hour one to hour four. I sometimes film myself or take photos to check my position—like where my head is, whether it’s catching the wind—so practicing indoors is really good for that.

Do you change your nutrition inside?

Yes, I do change my nutrition inside. In fact, my nutrition inside is a bit more fun than outside. Outdoors, I usually fuel with just liquids—I put my carbs in a bottle and have a carb drink, which, you know, is fine, it tastes okay, but it’s not really exciting. But indoors, I really enjoy having a variety of snacks—sometimes I have a little snack party, with gummies, cereal bars or anything sweet. I have everything right beside me, and I don’t have to ration my water or wait for a stop. Sometimes, when we do endurance rides outdoors with friends, we do stop for a treat—like ice cream or cake and, actually, that’s a fun idea—riding for an hour indoors, then relaxing on the couch with ice cream, and then getting back on the turbo. I should try that—maybe once! 

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