Over the past three months, I have been training on and off with the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro. This is one of the newest watches from Amazfit, and it is supposed to be able to do it all. Whether you’re a trail junkie who needs a rugged watch for your off-road runs and rides, or a triathlete who sticks to the comforts of smooth roads and calm pools in training, the T-Rex 3 Pro should have you covered.

And, for the most part, it does. If I were to sum up my experience with this watch, I’d say it was just fine. Nothing more, nothing less. I wanted to love it, but if I’m being honest, this is not a product that I would end up purchasing myself. Here’s why.

Tracking Workouts with the T-Rex 3 Pro

My first few workouts with the T-Rex 3 Pro were pool swims. Similarly to my tests with the Amazfit Balance 2, this watch was not great in the water. It took only a few laps for the T-Rex to short me on my distance tally. In multiple 2,500-metre swims, it never recorded more than 2,000 metres.

To be fair, there were a couple hundred metres of kick in each of those workouts, and many GPS watches tend to miss that part of pool swims. However, I don’t know where the other few hundred metres of my swims disappeared to. They were standard swims with nothing fancy — mostly freestyle — but the watch consistently missed full laps.

You’re not likely to buy a watch specifically to take it for pool swims, so my opinion of the T-Rex was not decided by those workouts. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, any open water near where I live in Canada is still quite cold, so I have not been able to take the T-Rex for any outdoor swims. I have, however, taken it on plenty of outdoor rides and runs, so let’s get to those.

Firstly, the watch took its time acquiring a GPS signal for every run and ride. There were times when I got tired of waiting around and started running or biking without the watch recording. The T-Rex 3 Pro always caught up and made that GPS connection eventually, but on a couple of occasions, five whole minutes passed before the watch told me it was ready to record.

Whenever the watch did finally connect to GPS, it was quite accurate with its recordings. I made sure to go on routes for which I knew the exact distances, and I also wore a rival company’s watch that I know to be very accurate with its GPS tracking.

Other than the few times when I started riding or running before the watch was tracking me (which meant it of course missed mileage in the final recording), the T-Rex 3 Pro was always bang-on with the distances. It matched the other watch, and they were both true to the route distances that I had anticipated before the workouts.

That’s a big pro for this watch, especially for the trail community for whom it is designed. No matter where you’re riding or running, you want the best and most accurate tracking. The T-Rex 3 Pro will give you that. 

The Cons of the T-Rex 3 Pro

There were several other negatives that came with this watch. These may not be deal-breakers for other athletes, but personally, I don’t want to have to worry about my watch glitching out on me before, during or after a workout — and that is exactly what happened on multiple occasions.

Firstly, the watch screen locks during workouts. This is a feature included in many sport watches, and it’s one I can get behind. This way, if you accidentally touch the screen, you won’t unintentionally pause, end or disrupt the recording. It’s the way that you unlock the T-Rex 3 Pro that frustrated me.

With other watches I’ve used, you maybe have to hold a button down to unlock it, but the T-Rex requires you to double-tap the screen. When this works, it’s way quicker and simpler than those other watches with the button-holding, but the issue is that it didn’t work quite a few times. This left me unable to stop the recording between sets, at coffee stops on rides, or for whatever other reason. Any triathlete can imagine just how annoying that is to watch the time tick by when you’re resting and not moving, therefore skewing your final workout metrics.

Another issue I ran into was actually caused by this glitch, at least initially. I had taken the watch for a run, and when I was finished, I couldn’t unlock the screen to end the session. I tried for several minutes, but ultimately gave up and left the watch on my bedside table, where I forgot about it and the unfinished workout for a bit.

Cut to the middle of the night a couple of days later and I was awoken by the watch speaking to me. It was telling me the final workout totals before it shut off. (The battery drained quicker than usual since it was recording a run that entire time.) This didn’t seem like a big deal, but in the subsequent workouts, it came back to be a much bigger annoyance that has persisted since then.

My next session was a bike ride. It recorded it just fine the whole way through, but when I ended the workout, I got a report from that run that I never wrapped up. Instead of a 90-minute bike ride, the watch told me about my 34-hour run (it died just after the 34-hour mark) from more than a week earlier.

This was sort of strange at the time, but I shrugged it off. That is, until my next workout, which was a three-mile run. Once again, it tracked just fine during the run, but when I completed it, I got a report for those same 34 hours during which I couldn’t end that other run. This has been an ongoing issue that hasn’t resolved itself, even after I cleared the watch’s workout history.

All watch and tech companies have products that suffer glitches, and they are often fixed by doing a system reset or update. Ultimately, that isn’t the biggest deal, but at the same time, it’s an annoyance that Amazfit patrons would of course rather not have to deal with.

More Pros of the T-Rex

There is one more big positive that comes with the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro, and that is its tremendous battery life. As I’ve said, the watch recorded that one run for 34 hours before tapping out and dying, and it hadn’t been at a full charge before I started the recording.

There were stretches when I was using other watches and I didn’t touch this one for two weeks or more at a time. I eventually went back to the T-Rex to find it still with plenty of life left. This is of course when it wasn’t being used at all, but even so, that’s impressive. The watch comes in two face sizes (44 mm and 48 mm), with the smaller of the two boasting 17 days of battery life and the larger lasting up to 25 days on a single charge.

The Verdict

The cons I’ve listed may very well be nit-picky. Maybe I’m not patient enough and should chill out a bit while my watch tries to locate a GPS signal before workouts. Likewise, maybe I’m too easily annoyed by a slight glitch like the watch screen not unlocking when I want it to. Perhaps a factory reset on the watch isn’t too much to ask to fix a technical error like the recurring case of the 34-hour run.

In my opinion, though, if you’re spending hundreds of dollars on a sports watch (the T-Rex 3 Pro retails for $399), you shouldn’t have to put up with silly issues like these ones. I’ve used many watches that connect to GPS in seconds, I’ve never had an issue unlocking my watches and I have most certainly not been required to reset everything to fix a bug in any other watch. The watch does some things very well, but I don’t know if that’s worth the negatives you’ll have to put up with.

The post Watch Review: Neither Good nor Bad, the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro Is Just Fine first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

It started in 2006. Back then it was known as Dirty Kanza. The inaugural race in Emporia, Kansas attracted 34 riders. The event now known as Unbound Gravel (Life Time rebranded the race in 2021) is renowned as the biggest race in gravel cycling with everything from World Tour cyclists, Olympic mountain bikers and, thanks to Unbound’s incredible growth, gravel specialists set to compete alongside thousands of gravel enthusiasts looking to take on the unique and life-changing challenge.

Roughly 4,000 athletes are expected to compete at the various events this weekend that include everything from 25- to 350-mile races. The marquee 200-mile race offers US$60,000 in prize money that’s split between the top-five men and women.

20th Anniversary Course

To celebrate the two decades of racing in Emporia, organizers have created a course that celebrates some of the iconic sections of past races. This year’s 200-mile race will actually include 207 miles of racing with over 9,000 feet of climbing that combines the north and south courses. With rain expected, that means the infamous 10-mile Sharpes Creek Road section promises to be every bit as painful as the last time it was featured at Unbound – 2015. That year’s mud-fest kicked off with a stretch of “prairie peanut butter mud” at about mile 10 that stopped many athletes in their tracks. It’s remembered by many as 100 miles of mud survival and 100 miles of gravel racing.

The terrain around Emporia, including the Flint Hills, features endless rolling climbs. If there’s not all that deep mud the course will often feature extreme heat – the course doesn’t offer much shelter from the elements. Thanks to a wet spring and the chance of rain this weekend, athletes could be in for another tough year at Unbound.

Men’s Race

Last year Kiwi Cam Jones, a mountain bike specialist, took the win after riding roughly 150 miles in a breakaway with Swiss rider Simon Pellaud. Jones will be the man to watch on Saturday, especially with the potential for a muddy course. The 2024 champ, Boulder’s Lachlan Morton, moves back down to the 200-mile race after an epic, record-setting duel with Canadian Robert Britton in the 350-mile race last year that saw just six minutes separating the two.

Two other big names to watch on Saturday include France’s Romain Bardet, who left the pro road peloton last year to focus on gravel racing, and another big-name former World Tour rider who has now moved to gravel, Canadian Mike Woods. Former champ Keegan Swenson is also back to look for another title and move up a spot on the podium after a runner-up finish to Bradyn Lange, who is also racing, at Sea Otter, the opening race of the Life Time Grand Prix series. American track legend Taylor Phinney has come out of retirement to try and represent the US at the LA Olympics in the team pursuit and will also test himself on Saturday.

You can see the full pro men’s list here.

Women’s Race

Last year’s women’s champion Karolina Migoń (a Pole who lives in Switzerland) was able to launch a full-time career after the win in Emporia last year. (She worked as a software engineer and took a five-month leave last year to focus on racing last year.) She managed to extricate herself from a three-woman breakaway with 50 miles to go last year to take a convincing win.

The 2024 champion, Rosa Klöser will be back to regain the title that eluded her last year after a crash and a wrong turn forced her to settle with a fourth-place finish. Another former champ, American Lauren De Crescenzo, who won in 2021, will be another to watch. As with the men, some big-name roadies will be garnering some attention – Axelle Dubau-Prévot (sister of Tour de France Femmes winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot) and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio will be switching to gravel for the weekend.

You can see the full women’s pro list here.

Tech Innovation

Gravel racing doesn’t fall under the same kind of technical UCI rules, which has made the event a testing ground for many manufacturers. This year there will be lots of eyes on defending men’s champ Cam Jones an Robin Gemperle, who will be riding Scott’s Racing Concept (RC) Gravel 32″ prototype bikes. According to Scott “the bikes ridden by Cameron Jones and Robin Gemperle are pure prototypes and will never be released on the market.”

As the “Kona of gravel,” there will no-doubt be more innovative products on display both at the huge expo, and on the race course.

The post Mud, Miles and Mayhem: 20 Years at Unbound Gravel first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

In an age of constant innovation and technological advancement in nearly every aspect of our lives, there’s a counter pull to more analog, “real” things. We’ve seen upticks in physical media forms like records and books; we saw the great push into outdoor recreation during COVID that had us all on Zoom meetings for days. It’s likely in part thanks to nostalgia, as we collectively yearn for a so-called simpler time (even though that simpler time was an evolution of whatever came before it).

At any rate, we see this with the products we use for training and racing, too. There’s entire product ecosystems for vintage bikes, for instance. (We’ll leave aside the Great Wheel and Tire Battle as its own can of worms.) Nike is perhaps the greatest example for this, with retro versions of classic running shoes permeating across categories from lifestyle to golf.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we’re probably starting to see that pushback with the traditional running shoe market (as opposed to just the retro side). We have so many shoes with plates out there, whether carbon or nylon. We will soon have shoes that are actively measuring impact and load to then give coaching advice. It’s becoming a lot. Overwhelming, in some cases, if I’m being honest. And I do this for a living!

It’s in that context that I’ve had a pair of Diadora Cellula 2 shoes in the wear testing rotation. There is no plate. There’s nothing magical about the foam that’s going to suddenly make you faster, and the real promise in the marketing materials on the shoe is focused on comfort and fatigue instead of speed. It’s a no bullshit, somewhat simple (at least in modern times) running shoe that’s meant to be used for lots of miles.

But is it special? Yes. And no.

The Tech Stuff: Proprietary Foam, Of Course

If you’re going to have a somewhat simple shoe, you’ve got to give people something to talk about. For Diadora and the Cellula 2, that pretty much comes down to two versions of their Anima proprietary foam. Anima is an ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) foam, which has been used in most running shoes for the last 40 years. Diadora’s spin on this foam is a claimed 20% lighter than your standard offering EVA midsole. They also claim that Anima increases responsiveness by 30%.

For the Cellula 2, that’s what is pretty much stacked from outsole to insole, and coming in north of 40 millimeters worth of stack. That, along with the shoe not appearing on the approved World Athletics list, would mean that it’s not a shoe that you’d probably wear on race day for a triathlon. That midsole also features just 5 millimeters worth of drop from heel to toe, so it’s on the low side of the equation.

I say “pretty much” above as, of course, there’s a couple of points where Anima N2 fits in. As you’d probably guess, it’s lighter and more responsive than even standard Anima is — 40% in each category, according to Diadora. You find Anima N2 concentrated in the forefoot of the Cellula 2, and intended to boost rebound and thrust, per the spec sheet.

Otherwise, the marketing material is focused on comfort:

“Cellula 2. The same performance, with an updated design to improve overall bounce and reduce muscle fatigue. Cellula is the neutral running shoe for everyday training and long-distance runs. Whether you’re a beginner or a more experienced athlete, the Cellula 2 will adapt to your pace and your goals, supporting different training sessions. A wide sole ensures superior comfort, while the introduction of Anima N2 improves bounce and propulsion when the foot strikes the ground.”

The claimed weight on a pair of Cellula 2 is 305 grams for a sample size, or just under 10.8 ounces. Me wearing my size 13 boats, it is a shoe that feels lighter than I would expect given that sample size weigh-in. Your mileage, as always, may vary.

On the Run: Speaking of Mileage

The thing the makes the Cellula 2 special is the fact that it’s just so damned simple. It’s a bunch of foam, a lightweight upper, and a somewhat grippy outsole. Lace it up and go.

Putting the shoe on brings up two things for me: first, Diadora has taken the Goldilocks approach to insole height. It’s not too high, not too low. For me, it’s most similar to slipping on a pair of Saucony’s. And then there’s the upper, which is a standout. The sockliner and mesh scream premium, in my mind. I would certainly hope so, as the shoe retails for nearly $200. But it’s a shoe that does not look out of place being worn with a pair of jeans before being laced up for a run after work.

Running in the Cellula 2, and it’s apparent that there’s some element of truth to the Anima descriptions from Diadora. This isn’t a shoe that is going to give you free speed; you need to go out there and do the work. But it’s also not like most traditional trainers, which actively feel like they’re trying to soften every mile to the point where it gives you the sensation of running in marshmallow fluff. There’s bounce. There’s plushness. It’s what you want for mile after mile on training runs.

And that’s what this shoe has done most effectively: just eaten up miles. It’s a shoe I don’t really need to think about what type of run I’m doing, or how far I’m going. I just know it’ll be good for whatever I throw at it. In that case, it’s a lot more like some older, responsive shoes that could dabble in speed, like a classic Mizuno Wave Rider. You’re going to get out of the Cellula 2 whatever you put into it.

The biggest nod to modernity? The price tag. At $185, it’s a lot to ask for a shoe that doesn’t have the kinds of bells and whistles that you see on some other footwear. Personally? I’d love to see this shoe at $160-$175, where it either undercuts or matches the premium trainer from other brands. But I also don’t think Diadora’s interested in playing anybody else’s game; they’re going to do things a little differently.

Diadora Cellula 2
Price: $185.00
Available: Now
Shop Men’s | Shop Women’s

The post Diadora’s Cellula 2 is a Throwback, No BS Training Shoe That Will Eat Up Mile After Mile first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

IRONMAN recently hosted a new full-distance race in the United States for the first time since the one-off IRONMAN Alaska in 2022. IRONMAN Jacksonville welcomed 1,900 entrants for its inaugural edition, with approximately 1,400 athletes crossing the finish line. For a new, early-season IRONMAN that had a relatively short runway (only being announced in early September of last year), it was a success from an athlete perspective.

It also, however, was a massive traffic disruptor in the area. Traffic was snarled for hours, as reported by local news. As one would probably expect for a full-distance race, the biggest issue was the bike course. Drivers were frequently stuck, or re-routed constantly as they attempted to find a way around the course. Some, unfortunately, took matters into their own hands, with two collisions with athletes; none were deemed serious. There was also a near-miss with a drunk driver who swerved through both the bike and run courses; he was arrested and charged with eight felonies and a dozen misdemeanors.

These types of issues are common and, in Jacksonville’s case, for two reasons. First, it’s the general type of teething problems that come from hosting an event in a city for the first time. You don’t ever really know how traffic will ebb and flow on race day until you’ve seen where the choke points actually are, and how drivers respond to it. The second, of course, is the population density of the area. There’s approximately 1.8 million residents in the Jacksonville metro area, and is the 38th most populous metro area in the country. It’s the third largest metro area to currently host an IRONMAN event, trailing The Woodlands and Sacramento.

In other words — it’s a lot of people. And, despite IRONMAN and the city of Jacksonville putting it just about everywhere that the race was coming and that there would be traffic impacts (heck, me here in Oregon saw it on every platform I can think of), that’s just too many people to really know that it’s happening. Even local government officials claimed, after the fact, that they did not know that the race was going to be impacting their community until either the day before the event, or while sitting in traffic.

As you would expect, the complaints were thick and fast from residents. The sheriff of St. John’s County, where a large part of the bike course took place, denounced the event and discouraged it from returning. For its part, Jacksonville released a statement, acknowledging that there had been pain points but that they were committed to following through on their three-year contract with IRONMAN.

“We are a world-class city, and IRONMAN chose us because of that. We benefit from the tremendous economic impact, the global exposure, the energy on our riverfront, and the pride on the faces of athletes crossing that finish line. We have a three-year commitment to this exciting event, and we intend to honor it by getting better every year IRONMAN Jacksonville comes to town. That means celebrating what worked and being honest about what could have been done better.

We are committed to a smoother experience for everyone next year, and are already in conversations with IRONMAN organizers, JSO, and city staff to conduct a full after-action review to make sure traffic and safety concerns are meaningfully addressed.“

Those conversations started the Monday following the event. All of this seems normal.

What is not normal, though, was the online discourse of some members of our broader multisport community, and the belittling of those who had taken issue with the IRONMAN event. Some of those comments, posted publicly on various social platforms, include the following:

• Directed at St. John’s County Sheriff Robert Hardwick: “Tough shit! Get with the program young fella!”
• Towards a couple whose wedding was disrupted by traffic: “I do feel bad for those that had wedding planned, but….they should have backup plans for sure and it’s not like brides aren’t checking everything prior to.”
• “I’m so sick of hearing all the complaints. It was one day. What’s the problem?”
• “Oh, but it blocked all those businesses that couldn’t get any business along the blocked roads! I loved that argument, one day of business as opposed to the week that people not normally in town were going to be there.”
• “The ignorant, impatient, entitled people in our society never ceased to amaze me. Oh lawd, it took me 10 extra minutes to get home today. The world is coming to an end!!”
• “Those people are just jealous they aren’t Ironmans!!”

And this, my fellow triathletes, is how we piss off the communities we are entirely dependent on in order to even have races in the first place.

Let’s rip off the band aid: we are neither as inspirational nor special as our sport (including us, here at Slowtwitch) tell ourselves. Triathlon, and especially full distance triathlon, is a logistical nightmare on its best days. What generally makes for a fantastic course for athletes (closed to traffic, scenic, single-loop) are hellacious for the communities hosting us. It’s how we wound up with the multi-loop courses at the former IRONMAN Arizona, and currently in The Woodlands for Texas; it helps to minimize the disruption because to have as safe of a course as possible, you must limit interactions with vehicles.

We, as athletes, are not entitled to have races on these roads. It’s why there’s a permitting process. It’s why there are so many stakeholders at play. And we ultimately need to be good partners. That partnership extends from just showing up and spending dollars in these communities, but by also understanding their concerns and needs while visiting their cities and towns. It means, for instance, spending money in some of the communities beyond those where swim or transition is located. Or it might mean ensuring that you know the traffic laws of that community while out on a ride.

But, what it is not part of that entitlement is simply sweeping complaints under the rug, and assuming that because you spend money in a community, that people should be thankful for your presence. There are significantly less challenging and expensive ways to draw tourism dollars to an area than hosting a full-distance triathlon. And we’ve seen time and time again that we wear the welcome mat thin in some of our host communities. We came close to losing IRONMAN Lake Placid. The aforementioned Alaska race was a one-and-done experience. St. George recently said enough was enough.

The line, to me, is clear: we, collectively, need to be better. And that starts by not throwing people who have concern about the impact of our races under the bus.

The post Triathlon’s Attitude Problem is Going to Cost Us Places to Race first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Heading down a perfectly calm but chilly 16C Danube, as expected, it was Hannes Butters from Germany who led out the 1900 m river swim. Butters sat solo about 30 m off the front while the rest of the field remained packed until the turnaround, where groups started to form. A lead chase pack of eight, including Kieran Lindars (GBR), Jannik Schaufler (DEU), Michele Sarzilla (ITA), Valdemar Solok (DEN), and Henry Rӓppo (EST), closed that gap down to mere seconds by the end of the swim.

Solok Dominates the Flat and Fast Bike Course

Heading out on to the flat, fast out-and-back bike course, it was Solok who took the lead, with Rӓppo working hard in second. But Solok pushed the pace and extended his lead to about two minutes by the halfway mark. Rӓppo was joined by Butters and Schaufler to form the first chase pack, but behind them, an incredibly strong group formed that ultimately included Lindars, Harry Palmer (GBR), and Ivan Abele (AUS).

Favourites Fred Funk (DEU) and Will Draper (GBR) worked hard (Draper without a visor or sunglasses, presumably from a malfunction in T1) to catch the pack, their efforts only showing gains in the later stages of the bike.

Solok completed the 90 km bike in 1:52:04, but the more important time was 3:11–the time of his leading gap. Once all the chasers started to come into T2, athletes streamed in constantly, with small but noticeable gaps throughout the field.

Unfortunately, Kurt McDonald (AUS) walked into T2 for a DNF, his rear derailleur and chain hanging over his bottom bracket.

Two Charging Brits Shake Up The Run

Draper came in 3:52 back but made quick work of transition, shaving 20 seconds off his deficit, and was the fastest man on course in the opening kilometers. But Palmer, who came into T2 ahead of Draper with the lead chase pack, was also setting an incredible pace. Although separate on the course, the two made their way through the field at impressive speeds.

The multi-terrain four-lap run course saw athletes running across cement, a sandy horse track, grass, and pavers.

Amid the rising temperatures, Solok maintained his lead for 17 km until Palmer made the definitive pass. But Palmer wasn’t done. He continued to build his lead, looking controlled and comfortable, and went on to break the run course record, take the €15,000 prize, and, with a time of 3:31:55, earn himself the biggest win of his career.

Solok took a well-deserved second, finishing 48 seconds back. Draper, throwing down an equally impressive run to Palmer’s, took the final spot on the podium.

“ I got off the bike in third place and Henry Rӓppo ran up to me, and he was like, “Yeah, we got three minutes to the lead.” I was like, “Well, I feel like he’s kinda gone. I’m racing in second place now.” And then after the first lap, it came down to 2:10. I was like, “I feel like we’ve got a race on our hands here,” so it was just about chipping away,” Palmer said in his post-race interview.

“I like the tough run course, the mixed terrain, it kind of suits me so I just got into a good rhythm. And, yeah, I managed to get past [Solok] on the last lap, and I was bluffing quite a bit when I ran past him. I was not feeling so good, but I just willed myself to the finish line,” he continued. “I love racing the best athletes, and today was epic.”

Men’s Top Three

Harry Palmer (GBR) – 3:31:55
Valdemar Solok (DEN) – 3:32:29
Will Draper (GBR) – 3:33:59

The post Palmer Wins The Challenge Championship–The Biggest Victory of His Career first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Who could forget the controversial sprint finish last year at the European championships between Lena Meissner and Caroline Pohle? The two would come together again at The Challenge Championship in Samorin, Slovakia as the top seeds and whether it would be a literal or figurative fight for the title was the question on everyone’s mind. 

The two faced a strong field of 24 other qualified women as well as a cold 16C river to start the race. Sophia Green, a British short-course athlete who transitioned to long-course racing, was expected to lead out the swim and did exactly that. The women very quickly strung out into a long line with only Meissner (DEU) and Marta Sanchez (ESP) able to stay on Green’s feet. Pohle (DEU) sat in no man’s land on her own between the leaders and a big chase pack.

Megan McDonald (GBR) led the front chase pack of nine the majority of the 1900 m, with the likes of Lilli Gelmini (ITA), Maela Moison (FRA), Justine Guerard (FRA), and Sofia Aguayo Mauri (ESP) all jostling for position in the final meters. Notably missing from the chase pack was race favourite Elisabetta Curridori (ITA), who swam on her own just behind and hit transition three minutes off the leaders. With several women choosing to wear neoprene caps, it’s possible some, including Curridori, struggled with the cold.

Pohle Takes a Risk on the Bike

On to the bike, Sanchez took the lead early, but Pohle quickly targeted that position. In no time, she made up her 37-second gap from the swim and took the lead. Sanchez, Meissner, and Green stayed with her, but at the halfway point, Pohle attacked. None of the other women seemed to respond until it was too late and Pohle would ride the last 40 km solo off the front, hitting T2 with a 2:39 lead and claiming the bike course record. 

Behind the front four, Katrine Christensen was another woman setting a rocket-fast pace on the bike. Along with Curridori, she bridged up to the front chase pack, joining McDonald, Guerard, Moison, Aguayo, Anastacia Nielsen, Francesca Crestani, and Jasmine Brown. But Christensen continued to push the pace and dropped the group, riding on own between the two chase packs.

Hot Temperatures on the Run

The last time Pohle raced The Championship in 2024, she collapsed from the heat with only 800 m to go. Coming into the race this year, she was vocal about her heat prep, and her concerted effort to make good use of the aid stations was noticeable. The heat started to affect her on the second half of the run but, despite Meissner’s best efforts that brought the gap down to 1:47 from over three minutes, Pohle was untouchable. Pumping her fists and shouting all the way down the red carpet, Pohle took the decisive victory in 3:55:39.

So, no argy-bargy sprint at this race, but Meissner joined her countrywoman again on the podium in second place. With an impressive bike-and-run combination, Christensen overtook a struggling Sanchez to round out the podium. Special mention goes out to Curridori, who put together a fiery run to finish fourth.

“I can’t describe it because I’m so happy and so proud of myself and of my team,” Pohle said after the race. “We [planned] a risk–I did an attack on the bike–so honestly, I didn’t know if it would work, but it worked.”

“ I felt not so good in the first hour of the race. I mean, I struggled on the swim. I came out in third position, so I was so frustrated. So I pushed very hard on the bike and I made my move and it worked,” she continued.

“In 2024, I collapsed 800 m before the finish line, so you don’t know until it’s over. So I pushed really hard until the end. I know Lena is really, really strong, on the run so I give my absolute best. I’m really happy.”

Women’s Top Three:

Caroline Pohle (GER) – 3:55:39

Lena Meissner (GER) – 3:57:11

Katrine Græsbøll Christensen (DEN) – 3:58:32

The post Pohle Wins The Challenge Championship first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Brenton Ford has been coaching swimming for many years, but not just at his local pool. Ford runs Effortless Swimming, a YouTube and social media page that many triathletes will know well. Effortless Swimming has hundreds of thousands of followers and subscribers across multiple platforms, and it’s all thanks to Ford’s ability to break swimming down into simple terms.

Slowtwitch was lucky enough to have a chat with Ford in which he discussed swim tips, drills and workouts for beginners as well as more experienced swimmers. The beginners article can be found here, but if you have a few seasons under your belt as a swimmer or triathlete, you’re in the right place.

Room to Improve

Ford recalls a conversation he recently had with an athlete. This athlete is one of Ford’s online clients, so he also works with an in-person swim coach.

“His coach said to him that he wasn’t going to get any better and to just, like, be OK with that,” Ford says. This athlete swims in the 1:50 to two-minute range for 100 metres.

“He’s got so much room to improve,” Ford says. “But there are some coaches who just have that mentality. Like, ‘No, you can’t change, that’s the pace you’re going to swim.'”

Ford shakes his head at the thought of delivering a line like this to an athlete.

“It’s just the wrong message,” he says. “Even if that was the case, why would you say that? It’s just going to demotivate them.”

While the athlete in question was swimming in, or around, the two-minute mark per 100 metres, Ford says there’s no point at which a coach should say their athlete has plateaued. Yes, the faster someone gets, the more difficult it will be to improve, but there is always something that can be done, adjusted or tweaked to shave time. It’s even the case with the best swimmers in the world, as they are always chasing personal bests and world records.

The key to getting faster is technique. Anyone who has watched Ford’s Effortless Swimming videos will know he stands by this rule. He has multiple videos catered to specific barriers, whether an athlete is looking to break two minutes in the 100 m, 1:30 or another time.

While running and cycling certainly have technique and form that must be perfected if you want to get the most out of yourself, swimming is in a league of its own. As a full-body workout, it requires attention to detail from your head to your toes and everywhere in between.

“I think that’s a big part of why we’ve managed to kind of stay in business in a way for the last 18 years,” Ford says with a laugh. “Because it’s frustrating for people and they don’t understand why they can’t get faster, but it’s all about technique. Everyone can improve and get better.”

Tense But Relaxed

Ford says a big tip he gives swimmers is to “find that balance between tension and relaxation.”

He uses “soft hands” as a cue to help his athletes find this balance.

“It’s enough tension to hold the shape of the hands and the forearms together, but no more than that,” he says. “It’s like picking up a glass of water. You don’t grab it as hard as you can, just enough to hold it in your hand.”

Ford says a lot of swimmers — even people who have been swimming for years — will have tense fingers and tense shoulders. This is especially the case when trying to go fast — it almost feels natural, in a way, to tighten your muscles for better, quicker results. That full-on tension can make you faster, but it can also actively slow you down.

“It does take a while to get there to that sweet spot of tension and relaxation,” Ford says, adding that it is so worth it when you can nail it down. Like most things with swimming, you will need to focus on maintaining that middle ground for a while, but eventually, it will become your go-to zone in the pool.

Hitting the Pool and Gym

For triathletes, Ford recommends getting in the pool a minimum of twice a week.

“Two times a week you tend to maintain your level,” he says. “My general rule of thumb is three times a week and you’ll generally improve.”

Adding more swims, whether it’s four or even five times total each week, will, of course, boost your gains even more, but Ford recognizes that triathletes not only have to train for cycling and running, too, but also that they have other parts of life that may keep them from the pool that often.

When it comes to strength training, Ford says “it certainly doesn’t hurt” to get into the gym (or to work out at home) at least once a week. He says the focus for your swim-specific strength routines should be core and upper-body.

On the note of gym training, Ford points to Dutch swimmer Sharon van Rouwendaal, the reigning Olympic champion in the 10K. He has worked with her before and picked her brain on training load and techniques. She told Ford that she solely works her back and shoulders in the gym, as these are the muscle groups used in freestyle.

“I think that’s a pretty good take, especially for people who don’t have a lot of time,” he says. “Even if it’s just five or 10 minutes of band work prior to swimming, just working on strengthening those muscles that surround the shoulder blades is great. Working your lats, traps, back, shoulders can go a long way, especially for preventing injuries.”

Effortless Swimming Workouts

For experienced swimmers, Ford recommends a pair of workouts that will both challenge you in the moment and prepare you for races later in the season. The first is 20 x 100m on your best average with 45 seconds of rest between each rep.

“This is a challenging set that will help build real fitness for an Olympic up to to full IRONMAN swim,” he says. “Best average means to hold as fast as you can across the entire set, so the speed that you start at should be the speed that you finish at.”

The second set is just a tad longer, but since it features 200 m repeats, it will test your endurance even more. The set is 12 x 200 m with just 15 seconds of rest between each rep. The first three 200s are held at 70 percent of your maximum effort. The next three reps boost to 75 percent, followed by three at 80 percent before finally closing the set out with three more 200s at 85 percent.

“Distance sets with short rest where you progressively get quicker towards the end of it can be great at helping you maintain your speed in the back half of a race,” Ford says.

As always, be sure to do a proper warm up before both of these workouts and don’t skimp on the cool down afterward. To find more tips from Ford and Effortless Swimming, click here.

The post Effortless Swimming Tips for Experienced Triathletes first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

On this week’s episode of The Slowtwitch Podcast, race directing husband and wife Andy Scherding and Kathleen Walker joined the show to talk about their unique suite of events. Scherding and Walker run New England Endurance Events (NEEE), a race organization based out of Cape Cod. As Walker and Scherding explain in this episode of the podcast, they got their start in organizing events after they set up a race for charity. After that, people started asking the couple to run more races. Over a decade later, they have eight events on the NEEE calendar.

Of the eight races Scherding, Walker and the rest of their team offer, there are four traditional triathlons (the classic swim-bike-run format with no added wrinkles). The couple touches on these races a bit in the episode, but the main focus of the podcast is their more out-of-the-box events.

The first of those events discussed is the Sea to Summit. While technically a traditional format for a triathlon, this swim, bike and run is far from a normal race. The swim is 1.2 miles long, followed by a 93- to 95-mile ride and it ends with a five-mile “scramble” (not a run) up the summit of Mount Washington.

“‘Run’ is kind of a misnomer,” Walker says in the episode. “It’s more of a hike, sometimes a cry, but eventually you make it to the top.”

Scherding describes the Sea to Summit as an “adventure triathlon” in the recording, which pairs nicely with NEEE’s two legitimate adventure races: the Gut Checks. The pair of Gut Check events are held in Cape Cod and Vermont, and as you’ll hear in the podcast, they have a bit of a mystery element to them when it comes to the course.

Finally, the NEEE duo talked about their swim-run race. They have personally been quite enthralled by swim-run events in their own racing careers in recent years, so they were keen to put on a race of their own. The event is also in Cape Cod, and although it takes place in October, you’ll hear on the podcast that it’s not all that chilly as athletes hop in and out of the water on race day.

To find out all you need to know about NEEE and their interesting lineup of races, listen to the full podcast here.

The post Adventure Racing and Out-of-the-Box Triathlon Talk on The Slowtwitch Podcast first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

If you’ve spent any time scrolling triathlon-related social media, there are pretty good odds that you’ve seen the face of the man above. That’s Brenton Ford, an Australian swim coach who runs the online swim tips page Effortless Swimming. With more than 420,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 380,000 followers on Instagram, Ford is one of the most recognizable swim coaches in the business (even if you didn’t know his name until just now).

What makes Effortless Swimming so popular is Ford’s ability to, for lack of a better phrase, dumb things down for viewers. Whether you’re brand new to swimming or a seasoned vet of triathlon, Ford has videos that are easy to digest and understand that can elevate your technique to new levels. He was generous enough to take the time to Zoom in from his home in Melbourne to talk swim tips for beginners (as well as tips for more practiced swimmers, which will be released as a separate article in the coming days), and, like with his videos, if you put these to the test, you’ll see improvements in the pool in no time.

Starting Effortless Swimming

Ford developed a love of swimming long before he started his YouTube page. He was born into the sport, in a way, as his grandfather managed and coached at a local pool in his hometown, about two hours outside of Melbourne. Not only that, but Ford’s parents were both coaches as well, and he spent his childhood training and racing under the instruction of his father.

With two parents and a grandfather who all coached swimming, it may look like Ford was destined to follow in their footsteps. While he ultimately did just that, it wasn’t his plan.

“I never expected to get into coaching,” he says. “I just started doing it part-time at uni to earn some money.”

After that, Ford realized that he really enjoyed coaching, and two decades later, it’s still his passion and profession. He coached a masters swim team, Powerpoints Master Swimming in Melbourne, and led them to five Australian championships between 2009 and 2016. While he found tremendous success with in-person coaching, he felt an itch to help more than just the swimmers who could make it out to his pool in Melbourne, so he started Effortless Swimming on YouTube in 2009.

“I saw a lot of coaches explain things in a way that I didn’t understand,” Ford says, thinking back to his decision to start the YouTube channel. “I was like, ‘If I can’t understand that, how can someone who hasn’t been in the sport for 30 years understand it?'”

Simplicity was the key for Effortless Swimming. Ford wanted to create videos that swimmers could use to improve all on their own, and a decade and a half later, his following only continues to grow thanks to that commitment to clarity.

Effortless Swimming Beginner Tips

Ford works with a lot of people who are new to swimming, so he has a bunch of great ways to get beginners comfortable in the water. Even if you can swim, there is a big difference between being able to keep your head above the water and actually swimming laps in a pool. A major part of being a proficient swimmer is body position, so that is a main focus of Ford’s when he works with newer athletes.

“The first thing we want to do is build this frame of our body and this platform so it’s long, tall and taut,” he says. “We don’t want to be just like this wet noodle that moves through the water. Always remember tall and taut.”

He is not suggesting that you remain rigid and stiff in the water, but rather that you remember to extend yourself fully while swimming. Keeping that “tall and taut” note in mind, the next focus is rotation. This is going to be directly impacted by the first pointer — if you’re swimming like a “wet noodle,” as Ford says, you’ll be moving too much in the water, which will not only slow you down, but also tire you out quicker.

“The head stays still, but the body rotates around the spine 30 or 40 degrees,” Ford says. After that, he shifts focus to “the extremities” — mainly your arms.

“Arms over the top of the water, the reach, the catch and the pull-through,” Ford says. As you might have noticed, these phases of the stroke will all be improved by Ford’s tall and taut cue. The reach as your hand enters the water should be stretched out before you — tall and extended rather than using a bent, and therefore shortened, arm. The catch is how you will propel yourself forward, which requires a taut arm to ensure you grab as much water as possible. The pull-through should, like the reach, extend fully (shortening it will only make your stroke less efficient).

Ford has countless videos on the basics of freestyle (and other strokes), and many will centre around perfecting these parts of the stroke.

Ford adds an important note — one that isn’t a specific tip, but something he hopes swimmers will keep in mind: if you improve your technique, you will get faster. That seems like an obvious statement, but he often sees beginners getting discouraged when they have so many aspects of their stroke to work on and don’t see results right away.

“I think it’s a big frustration for so many triathletes who get into swimming,” he says. “It’s frustrating for people and they don’t understand why they can’t get faster, but it can be solved for the most part. Everyone can improve and get better.”

Drills for Beginners

If you are truly brand new to swimming, Ford recommends some “really simple” drills. The first is what he calls sink-downs, which help with breathing regulation.

“Breathe in at the top and you just gradually exhale,” he says. “You might sink to the bottom or if you’ve got more buoyancy, you might stay near the surface. But just doing that 10 times, just getting used to breathing in and breathing out is good, because a lot of beginners tend to just hold their air too much and so they don’t breathe out properly.”

Next up is a ball float into an X float.

“Tuck into a ball and then you extend your arms out,” he says. This helps with body position and keeping “close to horizontal in the water for almost no effort.”

Ford says many new swimmers will kick “super hard” to stay up in the water, but he notes that that is “not only wasting effort, but it’s just not sustainable.”

The ball to X float will help you get a better feel for the water and improve your positioning so you can hold your body correctly with very little effort.

“In clinics, we’ll have beginners do a ball float into an X float, then we have them swim a super easy 25,” he says. “Most people tend to swim so much better through the water in that 25. They start to realize that they don’t need to force anything. It’s really simple, but it goes a long way for beginners.”

Try a Workout

Ford sent over a workout he recommends for beginner swimmers and triathletes. Try it out (along with the drills and tips mentioned above) and see how it feels. (Be sure to warm up and cool down properly with some easy swimming, some drills, some kicking.)

4 Rounds of 4 x 50m (20 seconds rest)

• 3 @ moderate pace
• 1 fast

Ford says a key focus for this workout is to count your strokes for each lap.

“Try to maintain the same count for the moderate efforts,” he says. “For the fast effort, only increase by four strokes.”

Paying attention to this rate will help you maintain your stroke length, Ford says, as many people “tend to spin the wheels” as they increase their effort and speed.

To learn more about Effortless Swimming, visit Ford’s website here.

The post Effortless Swimming Tips for Beginner Triathletes 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! 

The post Expert Indoor Training Tips from the Fastest Bike Split at Challenge Roth, Pro Merle Brunnee first appeared on Slowtwitch News.