# Fueling, FTP Tests & Training Niggles: Your Biggest Ironman Questions Answered | Ep 554

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 3 Sep 2025, 30 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/ea99f7d8/podcast/play/107686913/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-8-2%2F3c83dca3-fe21-35a8-68df-49593020a4f9.m4a

In this week’s episode, Coach Rob dives into some of the most common questions from athletes preparing for Ironman and 70.3: • How to fuel long rides without GI issues • Should you separate fluids and calories on the bike? • How many bottles should you really carry on race day? • Pool vs. open water for your race simulation swim • What to do if your FTP test result comes back lower • Are indoor and outdoor FTP tests comparable? • Should you trust your HRV the morning of a race? • Training when you’re feeling wiped out • When to rest, and when to push through • How to deal with niggles—and when to see a physio If you’ve got Ironman or 70.3 goals for 2026, this episode is packed with practical, experience-based advice to guide your training decisions. * * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Thinking about your first Ironman or 70.3 in 2026? September is the perfect time to start. At Team Oxygenaddict, we specialise in helping busy professionals fit high-quality training around demanding jobs and family life. We’ve just reopened for new athletes with only a handful of September slots available. Join before the end of September to lock in 2025 pricing before our October increase. Book an application call today to find out if you'd be a good fit for Team Oxygenaddict for the coming season here: https://team.oxygenaddict.com/consultation-call/ * * * * * * * * * * * * precisionfuelandhydration.com Precision Fuel & Hydration help athletes personalise their hydration and fuelling strategies for training and racing. Use the free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised race nutrition plan for your next event. And then book a free 20-minute video consultation with a member of the PF&H Athlete Support Team to refine your strategy. Listeners get 15% off their first order of fuel and electrolytes with Precision Fuel & Hydration. Simply click this link and the discount will be auto-applied at the checkout. * * * * * * * * * * * * Watch on youtube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

## Transcript

[0:04] Hello and welcome to the Oxygen Addict Triathlon Podcast.
[0:08] We're brought to you every week by our sponsors, Precision Fuel
[0:10] and hydration.com. You can get 15% off your first
[0:13] order with the code Oxygen Fuel 25.
[0:16] Welcome to the show everybody. I'm your host coach Rob Wilby
[0:19] from Team Oxygen Addict Triathlon Coaching, and every
[0:22] week I bring you an episode of this podcast to help educate,
[0:24] motivate and inspire you. On this week's episode, I've got
[0:28] some questions that have been sent in by our athletes, by
[0:30] listeners, by viewers on YouTube, some common questions
[0:34] here that I think will really help people out in terms of the
[0:38] answers. Sometimes can feel obvious when
[0:41] you know the answer, but sometimes the desire to, for
[0:44] example, the desire to keep training when you've got a race
[0:46] coming up but you've got a niggle, it's kind of obvious
[0:50] what the answer is. But also at the same time we're
[0:52] driven to try and get the training done.
[0:54] So we've got a whole bunch of questions that have been sent in
[0:56] that I think are really going to help athletes out.
[0:59] Two quick things you can do to help us as we kick off today's
[1:02] show. So firstly, if you like this
[1:04] episode, if you enjoy this episode, please consider
[1:07] following us on Spotify or up a podcast.
[1:09] Clicking like that really helps us.
[1:11] The way it happens is the algorithm in the back of the
[1:14] computer says these people have liked this, they've followed it
[1:17] and we'll get shown to more people.
[1:19] It's a great way to help support us for free.
[1:21] Secondly, if you're looking for help training for your first
[1:24] Iron Man or 70.3, please head on over and check out our coaching
[1:28] memberships at teamoxygenaddict.com.
[1:31] We've just reopened after our summer break.
[1:32] We're back to taking new athletes on for the going into
[1:36] 2026 season. September's the perfect time to
[1:39] get started with us for coaching.
[1:41] We love working with athletes for a whole year.
[1:43] If you're signed up to a 70.3 or an Iron Man next year sometime,
[1:47] this is the perfect time to get signed up.
[1:49] He might have a few races left over this year or not.
[1:52] Could help prepare you for them or not.
[1:55] You can get to know us a little bit before then, but the key
[1:58] part here is we can really help you make the best use of your
[2:02] time over the long winter and get you to next spring in a
[2:05] fantastic position for springboarding into your 70.3 RM
[2:10] and training proper. And what we see every year is we
[2:13] have athletes join us in the springtime or the early summer
[2:16] and they always say, God, I wish I'd come across you guys early.
[2:20] I wish I'd started earlier. I wish I'd joined up back in
[2:22] September or October, had the benefit of the full 16 to 18
[2:26] weeks of FTP building across the winter while everyone someone
[2:29] else isn't, isn't really training or is just footling
[2:32] around, can really help make a difference to people.
[2:35] So we've reopened our doors for new athletes.
[2:38] We've got a very limited number of spots actually.
[2:40] We've had a ridiculous retention rate this year.
[2:43] So at the moment we have three spots available in September.
[2:46] I expect that's going to increase a little bit as we go
[2:49] through September and athletes decide whether they're
[2:51] continuing on for a second, third, fourth season with us.
[2:55] But I don't expect it's going to go much beyond six or seven
[2:58] slots in September. So if you've been considering
[3:02] booking a membership call with us and having a chat, please go
[3:05] ahead and do that. Really important to stress this,
[3:08] it's not a sales call. We're not.
[3:10] We're not doing this to try and get as many people in as we
[3:12] possibly can. I've had a couple of calls today
[3:15] where the fit just wasn't right. The athletes really excited to
[3:19] to do an Iron Man next year, but honestly we're just not at the
[3:24] stage where we could help them out yet.
[3:26] There was a a young athlete who'd come to me who was really
[3:30] excited about the possibility of doing an Ironman next year and
[3:33] when I talked to them they did have a bike, but they weren't
[3:36] doing more than about 10 kilometres of cycling a week at
[3:40] the moment. Couldn't really swim yet had a
[3:42] bit of running experience. And the thing that I said to
[3:45] this athlete was look, before you commit to an Iron Man,
[3:48] you've got to decide that you really enjoy riding your bike.
[3:50] It's an essential part of your your training.
[3:53] You've got to know that you love bike rides and learn to love
[3:56] long bike rides. So go away, do some training for
[3:59] a month, have a think, come back to us then in a month and you'll
[4:02] know a little bit more as to whether you actually enjoy
[4:05] swimming, bike and running on a regular basis.
[4:07] So the kind of people we're looking to work with definitely
[4:10] committed to 70.3 and Iron Man, but I've already got a little
[4:14] bit of experience already know that, you know, I don't have to
[4:18] be breaking the news to somebody after a month that do you know
[4:21] what, yes, of course you are going to have to do a long ride
[4:24] every week. That's that's kind of the price
[4:26] of getting through the door. If you want to do Iron Man, the
[4:29] majority of your training is going to be on the bike.
[4:31] So if you're interested, please get in touch.
[4:34] There's a link in the show notes.
[4:36] I honestly think we've got the most comprehensive triathlon
[4:38] coaching programme that's specifically designed for busy
[4:41] age groupers. If you've got a busy job, a busy
[4:43] family life, it's hard to fit training in around and we
[4:47] specialised in helping people like that.
[4:50] But there's no way around it. We can make it simple but we
[4:53] can't make it easy. I think that's a good phrase.
[4:56] We can simplify how to do the training.
[4:57] We've got a really robust system now after 10 plus years of doing
[5:02] this with athletes. But you have to, you have to
[5:05] know that you're going to enjoy doing the training before you
[5:08] click, you know, clicking enter on the Iron Man website and
[5:12] paying a lot of money for the race entry.
[5:14] That's the easy part. Going out and riding your bike
[5:17] every week is the hard one. You've got to be sure that you
[5:20] want to do that. Anyway.
[5:21] There's a link in the show notes to book a membership call with
[5:24] us, see if you'd be a good fit for joining the team.
[5:26] We'll have a chat with you and if it's appropriate, if we've
[5:29] got slots available, then they'll be opened up to the next
[5:32] appropriate athlete on our list. So we would genuinely love to
[5:36] talk to you and see how we can help you out.
[5:38] As an added bones, if you join us before the end of September,
[5:41] you'll get to lock in the same pricing that we currently have.
[5:44] Our prices are going up on the 1st of October.
[5:46] So if you join us now before the end of September, you get to
[5:50] lock in our current 2025 pricing.
[5:53] Right then let's jump in. Let's get started on these
[5:56] questions that have come in from athletes question #1 how can I
[5:59] avoid GI issues on the long Iron Man rides?
[6:03] So I had a few comments this week and last week from athletes
[6:06] who they are in the process of doing, you know, that really
[6:10] long rides ahead of autumn Iron Man events and have started to
[6:14] come across the GI distress. And what we mean by that is if
[6:17] you eat too much too quickly, if you eat the wrong kind of
[6:20] calories on the bike, your stomach is going to get upset at
[6:25] some point. Even if you're actually riding
[6:28] an intensity that's too hard and not appropriate, you're going to
[6:31] find that the stomach is the place where you feel at first,
[6:34] essentially. So the first tip I'm going to
[6:37] give you isn't to do with food, it's to do with pacing on the
[6:41] bike. If you've not got a power metre,
[6:43] get yourself one. It's the most, it's the easiest
[6:47] way to get yourself into shape for a sport that is not easy.
[6:50] It's almost like cheating. You dial up the number that you
[6:52] need and you ride at it and you can be really, really accurate.
[6:56] Heart rate monitors help, but they're nowhere near as accurate
[6:59] as a power metre. If you haven't got either, if
[7:01] you just go in a field, that makes things very difficult.
[7:04] So get the pacing of the long ride correct first.
[7:08] That's the first thing. Because usually the GI distress
[7:11] is indicative of having tried to go a little bit hard and the
[7:15] body shuts off the blood flow to the stomach a little bit.
[7:18] And that's combined with trying to eat too many calories, trying
[7:23] to eat too many calories at once or trying to eat the wrong kind
[7:26] of calorie. So the advice we give to
[7:28] athletes is look at starting in this of 40 to 60 grammes of
[7:32] carbohydrate per hour area on the bike.
[7:35] Smaller athletes lower, bigger athletes higher and then
[7:38] gradually increase that amount of grammes of carbohydrate by 5
[7:41] grammes per hour per week on your long ride.
[7:44] So if you started at 60, you're 65707580 etcetera and you're
[7:50] looking to build to around I'd say around 100 grammes an hour
[7:54] is the top limit for what we see and is appropriate for most age
[7:57] groupers. Some of you might get a little
[7:59] bit higher than that, but the the range is, is generally
[8:03] between 50 to 100 grammes per hour.
[8:06] And the more grammes of carbohydrate you can train your
[8:09] body to safely absorb per hour, the more energy you're going to
[8:13] have available to you on the bike and on the run on Iron Man
[8:16] race day. So it's really important that
[8:18] you approach fuelling on the bike in the same way you'd
[8:21] approach training on the bike. So the best way to avoid these
[8:25] GI issues is be really clear about what is you're eating.
[8:29] Try and have the simplest form of foods that you can.
[8:32] Try and have foods that don't have tonnes of fat or tonnes of
[8:36] protein mixed in as well. Because really what you're
[8:38] trying to do here is you're not eating meals as you're riding,
[8:41] you're just providing glucose, you're providing carbohydrate.
[8:45] That's the thing that your muscles are burning that needs
[8:47] replacing. You don't need to provide any
[8:49] fat because every human has got more than enough fat stored for,
[8:54] you know, 10100 Iron Man's back-to-back.
[8:57] But the carbohydrate stores are going to run out, you know,
[9:01] possibly within three hours for some athletes.
[9:03] So that's the thing that needs replacing.
[9:06] So in summary, then get your pacing right on the bike, get
[9:09] the amount of grammes of carbs that you're taking in per hour
[9:12] and have it on a a reasonable, you know, every 15 minutes kind
[9:16] of kind of timetable if you like.
[9:21] And that is a really good surefire way to avoid the GI
[9:25] issues. If you find that you are having
[9:27] problems and back off the amount of grammes of carbs, back off
[9:31] the intensity a little bit. OK, question 2.
[9:34] Should I separate fluids and nutrition on the bike?
[9:37] Yeah, absolutely. So what I'd go with here is have
[9:41] one bottle that's exclusively for water mixed with
[9:45] electrolytes. So if you use precision fuel and
[9:47] hydration, other brands are available.
[9:49] But I don't talk about them here because I think PFH are the best
[9:52] and, you know, support the support the companies who
[9:54] support the show. SO1 bottle of water mixed with
[9:57] PFH 1 bottle that's got calories in.
[10:00] So that might be it might be PFH flow gel, it could be a
[10:04] combination of sports nutrition drink, anything like that.
[10:08] But you want to separate out the 2 so you can be sure how many
[10:12] grammes of carbs you're getting every hour from 1 bottle and how
[10:15] much water and electrolytes you're getting in the other
[10:18] bottle. For race day.
[10:20] You're going to be able to pick these up on course at the aid
[10:22] station. In training, you're going to
[10:24] need to stop probably every hour and a half or two hours or so to
[10:28] replenish what's in those bottles.
[10:30] So you can stop at a petrol station, stop at a shop, refill
[10:33] one with water, refill the other with the calories that you've
[10:35] got with you, and away you go again.
[10:38] But definitely look to separate the fluids into one bottle and
[10:41] the nutrition into a second bottle.
[10:45] Question 3. How many bottles should I carry
[10:48] for Iron Man race day? So you're going to see on Iron
[10:51] Man race day, you're going to see everything from people who
[10:53] don't appear to have a bottle on their bike at all all the way
[10:56] through to people who've got 4 or possibly 5 bottles on their
[11:00] bike. My advice to you is you should
[11:02] be carrying two. You're going to have one that's
[11:06] got your fluid and your electrolytes in.
[11:09] You're going to have one that's got your liquid calories in,
[11:11] whether that's PFH, Flow Gel or any other kind of gels that's
[11:14] got liquid calories in. The more of those that you
[11:18] carry, the heavier your bike is going to be.
[11:20] Arguably the more difficult it's going to be to handle if you've
[11:23] got a bottle on the bars, If you've got a couple of bottles
[11:26] behind the seats, there's the danger that they might get
[11:28] launched. I don't think you need more than
[11:31] two bottles for any distance race, especially if it's a major
[11:34] branded one that's giving out bottles every 20 or 30K.
[11:38] You're easily going to be able to pick up bottles as you go
[11:40] along. Even if you've got to stop for
[11:42] five seconds, no big deal, but with a bit of practise you'll be
[11:45] able to pick up a bottle on the move.
[11:46] Still, I am not a massive fan of having more than that.
[11:51] Now if you need to carry spares as well, an athlete said to me
[11:54] the other day, should I have a third bottle on the bike that's
[11:57] got my spares in? My advice here is try and find
[12:01] somewhere on your bike to put your spares that you can hide
[12:03] them out of the way so they're out of the wind, but they can
[12:06] also access them if you need to. So if you've got a really modern
[12:10] try bike, a lot of them have got very clever top tube storage
[12:15] solutions or you can get a tube under your saddle between the
[12:18] saddle rails or you can have a little tiny little baggie taped
[12:22] underneath the saddle. The key here is you're going to
[12:25] have to be able to get to the spare tube and the inflator and
[12:28] the the little Allen key that you're going to carry with.
[12:30] You're going to need to be able to get to them, but you're not
[12:33] necessarily going to have to be able to get to them really
[12:36] easily and quickly. So I have seen people tape that
[12:40] spare tube under the saddle and really they're thinking if it
[12:43] comes to it on race day, I'm going to be able to get this
[12:46] tube out, but it's going to take me a little bit longer to get it
[12:48] than it might do. I think you need to be honest
[12:52] about your aspirations of racing and going really fast because
[12:57] the rules of aerodynamics say the faster you want to go, the
[13:01] less stuff you can have hanging out in the wind.
[13:03] If you're an athlete who just wants to complete the bike
[13:06] course and you're really happy being, you know, in the middle
[13:09] of the pack or the back of the pack, then by all means have a
[13:11] saddle bag underneath the back of the saddle.
[13:15] What matters is if you have a flat, you can fix it and you can
[13:18] carry on with your race in it and you don't blow your race
[13:20] apart. But for the vast majority of
[13:23] people, those two bottles will be absolutely fine for you.
[13:27] Question 4. Should I do my race SIM swim in
[13:31] open water or in the pool? Or does it even matter?
[13:34] So for the specific preparation for your Iron Man OE 70.3, what
[13:39] I'm going to say here is the ideal way to do it is for you to
[13:43] do that swim and open water where you wet to wear a couple
[13:47] of hats. If you're going to have to wear
[13:48] a couple of hats on race day, wear the same goggles you're
[13:50] going to wear. Ideally, it'll be at the same
[13:52] time of day as race day will be. Make everything as similar as
[13:56] you can to race day. But if you can't get to open
[14:01] water, if it just isn't feasible, I know in some places
[14:04] the access to open water is really difficult, then by all
[14:07] means do your do you swim in the pool for the racing weekend?
[14:10] But you just got to make sure that you've got some experience
[14:13] swimming in open water in your wet.
[14:15] So you absolutely don't want to show up for your first swim in
[14:18] open water to be race day. Make sure you've had the chance
[14:21] to practise. So if you possibly can have this
[14:25] be the open water swim, if it doesn't work, isn't the end of
[14:29] the world. Specifically for the athletes we
[14:31] coach, you'll know that I set the race SIM swim to be ideally
[14:36] Friday evening or Saturday morning, depending on when the
[14:39] athlete has the choice. Either of those is fine.
[14:43] If you've got plenty of open water experience, it makes no
[14:45] odds. It's happy to have you do that
[14:47] in the pool, but the more of the workouts you can do, the more
[14:51] specifically to race day, the better.
[14:55] Question #5 I've just done an FTP test and the result is lower
[15:00] than before. Should I change my training
[15:02] zones or should I stick with my old FTP number?
[15:05] Right. So the answer to this is going
[15:08] to be it depends. If you're in a situation where
[15:12] you've had a break from training for a few weeks or a few months,
[15:15] or you've had some downtime and you're coming back to training.
[15:18] It's really important to do the FTP test and use the baseline
[15:21] number that you've got so your numbers are accurate.
[15:25] The the caveat I'll say here is we tend to give our athletes an
[15:30] outdoor FTP test 4 weeks out before race day just to fine
[15:34] tune the numbers and make sure they're really happy that
[15:36] they've done an outdoor FTP test.
[15:38] The numbers are all dialled in and everything is is good.
[15:42] There are occasions where the number comes back a little bit
[15:45] lower than the previous test. They might have done 6-8 weeks
[15:48] before that and that puts a little bit of doubt in the
[15:51] athletes head. And what I usually say here is
[15:54] look, your fitness definitely will not have decreased in the
[15:57] preceding 6 to 8 weeks if you've had a good run of training.
[16:01] So let's keep the number where it was.
[16:04] The main purpose for doing the outdoor FTP test ahead of your
[16:08] race day is so you've got accurate numbers and you don't
[16:11] go too hard by mistake actually on race day.
[16:16] So if you've had an accurate set of numbers and you've been
[16:19] training really well with those numbers and it's been feeling
[16:22] comfortable in your long ride and then unaccountable, you do
[16:24] your FTP test. It doesn't go well for whatever
[16:27] reason and you don't manage to quite squeeze out the the watts
[16:29] that you think you could. I don't think you need to adjust
[16:32] that number lower. I think you can say, all things
[16:35] being equal, you know, give myself a break.
[16:37] I had an athlete this week, you said I was feeling really under
[16:39] the weather the day before the test and I was a man and gnawing
[16:42] as to whether I should actually do the test.
[16:44] And I went out and did it and it came out 11 watts, I think lower
[16:46] than it than it had been before. It's about 5% drop.
[16:51] I looked at that and thought, all things being equal, the fact
[16:54] you're feeling under the weather, the fact that there was
[16:56] traffic on the course and you didn't feel you had a good run
[16:58] at it, just keep the number where it was.
[17:01] And you know, let's be really confident going into race day
[17:04] that the numbers are accurate. It's a good place for us to have
[17:07] a quick break. And for a sponsor shout out,
[17:10] we're going to say thanks to our sponsors Precision Fuel and
[17:12] Hydration, who are now entering their 9th year sponsoring the
[17:15] show, which is quite unbelievable.
[17:17] I'm really, really grateful to them.
[17:19] You can head up to their website.
[17:20] You can use the free fuel and Hydration planning tool to
[17:23] receive a personalised strategy for your next race.
[17:25] The plan will help you understand your own
[17:27] carbohydrate, electrolytes and fluid needs.
[17:30] You can also book a free one to one video consultation with PF
[17:33] and HS Athlete Support team. They'll then help you refine
[17:38] your own strategy and personalise it to you.
[17:40] Which is amazing. And it's also great news.
[17:44] PF and H are now the title sponsor of the 2025 Iron Man
[17:48] 70.3 World Championships in Marbella on the 9th of November.
[17:52] So if you're racing down at the PF and H Iron Man 70.3 World
[17:57] Championships, you're going to see the loads of their branding
[18:00] out on the course. If you're any of the races,
[18:02] please head over to the team and say hello and tell them that
[18:04] you're a listener of this the podcast, because one of their
[18:08] guys emailed me the other day and said, Oh, I was I was at a
[18:10] race out in Spain and two listeners came over and were
[18:12] chatting to me and I forgot to ask the names and they're saying
[18:15] how long did listen to the show and how they'd heard about our
[18:17] products on the show. So this genuinely is, you know,
[18:21] these are two little businesses that have grown out of, you
[18:24] know, me wanting to start a coaching company, Andy Blow
[18:27] wanting to start an electrolyte company.
[18:29] We were two guys who met at a race and talked to each other
[18:32] and said, you know what, we could probably help each other
[18:34] out here. And at its core, it's still
[18:36] that. It's still me and Andy having a
[18:38] chat on the phone every couple of months and seeing how we can
[18:41] help each other out. It really makes a difference if
[18:44] you listeners approach them and say you've heard about their
[18:46] products on our show because the word of mouth thing is massive
[18:51] and it and it really goes a long way to support those guys.
[18:54] Now they're becoming a really big company.
[18:55] Obviously they're a title sponsor, the Iron Man 70.3 World
[18:59] Championships, they're on course at all of the major 70.3 and
[19:04] Iron Man races in Europe, South Africa, Oceana, it's just
[19:08] fantastic. But they've never lost that
[19:11] small company feel and personal recommendations mean a lot to
[19:15] them. So if you see them go and say
[19:16] hi, if you've got PFNH, HAT or whatever, give them a wave and
[19:21] tell them you listen to the podcast.
[19:22] I'm sure they'll appreciate it. OK, let's get back to our
[19:26] questions then. Next up, are indoor and outdoor
[19:29] FTP tests comparable? OK, it's right, great question.
[19:34] For some people, what you're going to find is if you do an
[19:37] indoor FTP test and an outdoor one, the number will be exactly
[19:40] the same. If that's the case, happy days.
[19:43] What we tend to find is that it stays the same for you
[19:48] throughout your entire athletic career.
[19:50] If if you're an athlete whose number indoors and outdoors is
[19:53] about the same, it's going to stay that way.
[19:55] If your indoor number is lower than the outdoor number, it'll
[19:58] stay the same and vice versa. So you need to do the tests and
[20:02] compare, you know, compare what the numbers are relatively
[20:05] quickly back-to-back a couple of weeks apart.
[20:08] And then you can do a test in either one and you'll be really
[20:12] happy. So some of our athletes who've
[20:13] been with us for years now. They know that, you know,
[20:16] traditionally their indoor number is the same as their
[20:19] outdoor number. They don't need to do a test
[20:20] indoors or outdoors. They can do it in either way.
[20:23] Now, some people find they can put out more power indoors.
[20:27] They can put the head down, they can close their eyes, they can
[20:29] crank the music. They can just squeeze out more
[20:31] power. And then when they go in right
[20:33] outdoors, they've got to look where they're going.
[20:35] They've got to be aware of traffic, maybe the 10 or 20
[20:37] watts lower outdoors. It doesn't mean they're any less
[20:40] fit outdoors, but it does mean that's what their capacity is to
[20:45] put the numbers out outdoors. So it's really important to use
[20:48] the correct indoor and outdoor number and change between the
[20:51] two when you change between training indoors and outdoors.
[20:55] So I used to find I could put out tonnes more power indoors
[20:58] than I could outdoors. The difference was 30 or 40
[21:01] watts. It was massive.
[21:02] I used to look at my outdoor numbers and think I just, I just
[21:05] can't ride. I can't put the power out till I
[21:08] talked to a few different cyclists, Matt Boswell was one
[21:10] of them and he said no, but it's really common.
[21:13] It's going to be really, really different for some people and
[21:16] not different at all for other people.
[21:17] And we don't know why, but for you just accept that's what the
[21:21] number was. So at the time when I was at,
[21:23] you know, peak fitness, I was pushing out two 85290 indoors,
[21:28] couldn't get above 250 outdoors for the life of me.
[21:31] But I seem to go OK on the 250 I was putting out outdoors.
[21:35] So it's not about the size of the number.
[21:38] A lot of it's down to how well you go off that power number.
[21:43] Next question, what should I do if my HRV tells me to limit
[21:47] intensity on the day of a race? Right.
[21:51] OK. So my advice to you here is
[21:54] don't take your HRV the day before a race or the day of the
[21:57] race. And it's for exactly that
[21:59] reason. You can't do anything about it
[22:01] at this point. It's really not unusual and I've
[22:05] come to this advice because so many athletes came to me and
[22:07] said, oh, I had a bad HRV reading on the morning of the
[22:10] race and it was in my head. There's a lot of things go on
[22:14] the night before a race. 2 nights before a race, you often
[22:16] don't sleep well. You're excited, you're really
[22:20] rested and tapered, weird things are going on in your body.
[22:23] You know, it's really not uncommon for people to barely
[22:26] sleep at all the night before an Iron Man and in some cases not
[22:29] genuinely not sleep at all. That's going to mess with your
[22:32] HIV massively. And it doesn't mean you can't go
[22:35] and race. It's just all part of your body
[22:37] and mind getting prepared for the event.
[22:39] So my advice is don't take HIV the morning of the event, Don't
[22:43] take HIV the morning before the event.
[22:46] I think what you'll probably see during your taper is your HIV is
[22:49] trending upwards and you are, you know, you're getting all
[22:52] those signs that your body's recovering and resting and
[22:54] recuperating. Even if you don't feel great
[22:56] during the tape of the HIV, it should probably trend in the
[22:59] better way. But again, if it doesn't, don't
[23:02] worry about that. The taper is still doing its
[23:05] magic. Even if you're not seeing the
[23:06] reflection of that in the numbers.
[23:08] I'm sure that there's that element of overall stress is
[23:12] related is shown in your HIV number and you're under a lot of
[23:17] stress, You're worried about the race, you're not sleeping well,
[23:19] you've got all these racing thoughts going through your
[23:22] head. So it wouldn't be unusual for
[23:23] HRV to be low whilst your body is still trending back to a
[23:28] position where you're going to be able to race really well.
[23:31] So don't worry about it. Don't take the HRVA couple of
[23:34] days before the race. Next question, how do I know if
[23:39] I should rest or train when I feel completely wiped out?
[23:44] OK, so the first thing I'm going to go to is in standard
[23:47] training, we're going to go to HRV.
[23:49] If HRV backs up the idea, it's yellow, it's red.
[23:52] It's giving you signs that your body is really overly fatigued,
[23:56] then you should definitely, definitely rest.
[24:00] Take that time, have a recovery day, whether that's total rest
[24:03] or active recovery, and really listen to your body.
[24:07] There are times during your peak Iron Man training time when you
[24:11] are going to have to train, when you feel really tired.
[24:14] Now it's not every day, I'm going to be really clear here,
[24:17] you shouldn't be feeling wiped out every day for months on end,
[24:20] but there's going to be a few key times.
[24:22] The racing weekend is a great example of this.
[24:25] You've done a big break on the Saturday, you wake up, you
[24:28] always feel really tired and wiped out on the Sunday.
[24:31] You've got to get out and get that run done.
[24:33] Even if you feel rubbish, you get up, you have a coffee, you
[24:36] have a word with yourself and you go and do it anyway because
[24:38] it's preparing you for what's going to happen on race day.
[24:41] You're going to have to push through that feeling of fatigue
[24:43] on race day. But in general, we're going to
[24:46] listen to the HRV, we're going to look at the the short and
[24:49] medium term trends. And honestly, if you've got a
[24:52] coach, talk to your coach and bounce the ideas back and forth
[24:55] often that third party objective opinion, taking a look back at
[25:00] the training and what's happened in the comments, maybe looking
[25:04] at the HRV data as well can give us a little bit of insight and
[25:07] say on the balance of probability, I think it's either
[25:09] better A, you should rest now or B, push on through and get it
[25:13] done. OK.
[25:14] So if you've got that opportunity, talk to your coach
[25:16] and get that feedback. Next question, should I keep
[25:21] training with a knee or a rib or a hamstring niggle?
[25:26] All right, so this advice is going to tie in with the answer
[25:30] to the next question as well. I think the best thing to do
[25:34] here is get physiotherapy advice as soon as you possibly can.
[25:39] I'd I'd treat it like this. If you've got a bit of pain
[25:42] after one session, be aware of it.
[25:45] It should go the next day. If it does, I'd advise keeping
[25:50] on training. I wouldn't class that as a
[25:52] niggle though. I would Class A niggle as
[25:54] something that started to hurt on Monday.
[25:56] You went to bed, you got up, it was sore when you were walking
[25:58] around on Tuesday. That's the point when you should
[26:01] be thinking right, I need to go and get professional advice and
[26:05] that's the first thing I would do.
[26:06] I'd book in to see my local sports physio, go and get
[26:09] treatment, get it assessed. Delighted to say this is
[26:13] something and we'll treat it like this or this is nothing and
[26:16] you can, you know, you can carry on.
[26:18] So that's question nine, question 10.
[26:20] Leading on for this. When's it best to see a physio
[26:23] versus just resting? Well, there's my advice to you.
[26:26] If it goes on for more than a day, if you're still in pain on
[26:29] day 2, get yourself in to see that physio.
[26:32] Now. A lot of my physio listeners and
[26:36] athletes and friends and, and colleagues like it when I give
[26:40] this advice and, and I don't give it because I want to be
[26:42] liked by them. I just think it's common sense
[26:45] and it's, it's good solid advice.
[26:47] The faster you can get in to see the physio, the better, the
[26:52] lower the chances that you've done any kind of lasting damage
[26:55] to yourself and the easier they're going to be able to help
[26:57] you heal and the faster they'll be able to help you heal.
[27:01] But seeing a physiotherapist is not as sexy a way to spend money
[27:08] as buying new new carbon wheels or an arrow helmet or a skin
[27:12] suit. So don't be a weenie.
[27:14] That's my advice to hear weenies spend money on new kit to try
[27:19] and make the problems go away. Smart athletes are going to
[27:22] spend money to go and do the right thing to make the problem
[27:25] go away. So if you've got sore calves and
[27:27] you're on the Canyon website right now thinking that maybe
[27:29] the speed Max will make all the difference, I'm going to call
[27:32] you a weenie and say don't be a weenie.
[27:34] Go and see the physio and get it treated and find out what's
[27:38] going on. OK, I'm going to give you a
[27:40] great example of this. I was the biggest weenie in in
[27:43] all of England back in the time I chronic Achilles problems.
[27:47] They were so painful. I was cutting the heels out of
[27:49] my shoes because just my Achilles tendons being touched
[27:52] by the heel tab was agony. And my friend that I ran, we
[27:55] said go and see a physio and I was like, I'm not going to do
[27:58] that. And honestly the reason was I
[28:00] was scared. I was in so much pain.
[28:02] I physically couldn't touch my Achilles tendons.
[28:04] I'd let them get so bad. I was, I was absolutely
[28:08] terrified that they would touch them and I'd be in agony.
[28:11] And there was no way anyone's going to be able to treat these
[28:13] tendons. Eventually in agony I went to
[28:15] the physio and the physio treated them so gently, barely
[28:19] even touched them to start with, but managed to treat them in
[28:24] such a way that not only did it not hurt the Achilles pup and
[28:28] went away in a matter of. I think it went away in a matter
[28:31] of three months and I've been suffering with it for over 2
[28:33] years. I'm such an such I'd be kind to
[28:35] myself, I wasn't an idiot but I was so desperate to not be in
[28:40] more pain that I was scared of going to the physio.
[28:43] So don't be like that, don't be a weenie, don't be like me
[28:46] buying new carbon wheels on the Internet to try and convince
[28:49] myself that's the way through the problem.
[28:51] OK, so the best time to see a physio as soon as you've got any
[28:55] lasting pain that lingers more than a day.
[28:58] OK, I've got more questions to give to you next time.
[29:02] They're going to be for another episode.
[29:04] We're going to wrap this up here and we're going to give you some
[29:06] discount codes and deals to finish this up.
[29:08] At Precision Fuel and hydration.com, you can use the
[29:11] code Oxygen Fuel 25 for 15% off your first electrolyte order.
[29:15] And over at teamoxygenaddict.com, like I
[29:18] said, we've got the most comprehensive triathlon coaching
[29:21] programme specifically designed for busy age groupers.
[29:24] If you join us during September, you're going to lock in this
[29:28] year's pricing. Our prices are going up on the
[29:30] 1st of October, so you're going to be able to lock in this
[29:33] year's pricing and that's going to be a big saving on next
[29:36] year's next year's membership fees.
[29:39] So if you're looking for Coaching Fireman at 70.3, please
[29:42] get in touch. There's a link in the show notes
[29:44] to book a membership call and we've got three slots currently
[29:48] have opened up. I expect we're going to have
[29:50] five to seven open up to in September, so let's see if you'd
[29:53] be a good fit for one of them. If you've got 70.3 or Iron Man
[29:56] goals for next year, we would absolutely love to talk to you.
[30:01] That's what we specialise in. So remember then there's links
[30:03] in the show notes. You don't have to remember them.
[30:05] And until next week, have a great safe training and racing
[30:08] week. I'm coach Rob Willby, and you've
[30:10] been listening to the Oxygen Addict Triathlon Podcast.

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