# Cold Weather Triathlon Training: Practical Tips to Stay Safe and Keep Progressing | Ep 522

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 8 Jan 2025, 25 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/ea99f7d8/podcast/play/96739455/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-0-7%2Fab234f21-d976-9836-ab87-b4fbe5a201cf.mp3

In this episode of the Oxygenaddict Triathlon podcast, Coach Rob delivers a comprehensive guide to training safely and effectively during winter conditions. Rob discusses the challenges posed by snow and ice, shares personal anecdotes, and offers practical advice on navigating the cold weather while maintaining your triathlon training. Key topics include safe alternatives for swimming, biking, and running during winter, along with the importance of strength & conditioning, recovery, nutrition, and maintaining a balanced lifestyle. So if you're experiencing the challenge of icy roads, dangerous conditons and uncertainty about how to train around it, this episode is packed with actionable tips to help you adapt your training plans and avoid injuries during the colder months. * * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Like what you heard in this show? Join hundreds of other age group triathletes making the most of their limited training time, training with Team OxygenAddict! http://team.oxygenaddict.com - The most comprehensive triathlon coaching program for busy age groupers. Book an application call to see if you'd be a good fit for Team Oxygenaddict for the coming 12 months 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 use this link and the discount will be auto-applied at the checkout. * * * * * * * * * * * * Watch on youtube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

## Transcript

[0:02] Hello, and welcome to the Oxygen Addict Triathlon Podcast.
[0:05] We're brought to you every week by our sponsors, Precision Fuel
[0:08] and hydration.com. You can get 15% off your first
[0:11] order of electrolytes and carbohydrate fuel with the code
[0:13] Oxygen 24 over at precisionfuelandhydration.com.
[0:18] Welcome to the show everybody, and happy New Year.
[0:20] I'm your host coach Rob Willby, and every week we bring you an
[0:24] episode of this podcast to help motivate and inspire you.
[0:27] On this episode today, I want this to be like a like an in
[0:32] real time running diary of what a coach will give advice to you
[0:38] to deal with the weather conditions that we're facing
[0:41] here currently in the UK at the moment.
[0:42] So as I'm recording, it's the start of the week of the 6th of
[0:46] January and I'm looking out my window.
[0:48] We've got about 3 inches of snow on the ground.
[0:51] It makes for beautiful weather out across the fields.
[0:54] The roads, however, around here are absolutely treacherous.
[0:58] And I'm I'm fortunate I'm in this position where I work with
[1:02] a lot of athletes every week. And I also get to work with
[1:05] athletes who are listeners and athletes who are viewers of
[1:08] YouTube. And I was thinking, what advice
[1:11] would I give to athletes at this time of year facing these
[1:13] conditions? We wake up and look out the
[1:15] window. Often things that seem obvious
[1:18] and not obvious, and often things that are quite patently a
[1:22] very bad idea for your long term health and fitness don't
[1:27] necessarily seem that way. And I'll give you an example.
[1:30] This morning I woke up, I went out for a walk just before
[1:33] sunrise and went out to the fields and was just thinking how
[1:35] amazing it was. We've got the snow that's
[1:37] fallen. We had a beautiful blue sky.
[1:39] We had the sunrise and around me my neighbours were trying to
[1:43] scrape the ice and snow off the cars, to load their kids into
[1:46] the cars to try and drive their kids to school, a lot of whom
[1:50] have a have a walk. You know the high school, they
[1:53] have a walk of less than half a mile.
[1:55] It's a hilly area that we live in, the high schools at the top
[1:57] of the hill. 20 minutes later, I came out the other side of the
[2:01] woods to the hill near the high school and it was absolute
[2:04] carnage. There were cars stuck, there
[2:06] were cars slipping, they were crashing into each other.
[2:09] It was total gridlock. And I live in a a relatively
[2:12] small village and it's it's an example of people not making the
[2:19] decision that's best right now and what's best for the long
[2:23] term, sort of health and fitness of the family.
[2:26] But working on a preconceived idea of, well, I give the kids a
[2:30] lift to school on the days when the weather isn't great.
[2:33] And even though it seems kind of obvious to a third party to go,
[2:35] well, no one's going to be able to drive through this.
[2:37] The roads have not been gritted. The driving force of the parents
[2:41] thought has been I want to try and help my kids to get to
[2:43] school without getting cold and wet.
[2:45] And sometimes I think as athletes we face a similar
[2:48] dilemma. Only rather than I want to get
[2:51] my kids to school without them being cold and wet, the the
[2:55] first thought in the process is I want to get my training done.
[2:58] I want to get out no matter what.
[3:00] I even saw a guy trying to ride his bike along the roads this
[3:03] morning and it just looked a terribly dangerous and difficult
[3:10] and ill advised things to be trying to do when there's snow
[3:12] on the roads. But I also understand having
[3:15] been an athlete, you know, back in the past, having wanted to
[3:19] commute to work on my bike to get the miles and having made a
[3:22] plan to start January and get the training done, I can
[3:25] understand that sort of compulsion to get the training
[3:27] done no matter what. And it's finding that line
[3:30] between what's the thing we need to do to get the training done?
[3:34] What's the acceptable line? I am willing to do whatever it
[3:37] takes, but also making our first and sponsoring thought to be
[3:43] avoid ruin. What can you do to make sure
[3:45] that you don't get in your own way and do something today in
[3:49] the snowy weather that's going to impact yourself in the long
[3:53] term? You could pick up an injury that
[3:54] affects you for a day, a week, a month, three months, even longer
[3:59] if you come off your bike on the ice.
[4:00] So this is almost me saying to you as a as a third party,
[4:06] here's the advice I would give you when you're facing this
[4:08] weather related to all of the aspects of your training, not
[4:12] just swim, bike and run, but what can you do to get training
[4:15] done? What shouldn't you do that that
[4:17] actually doesn't make sense And how can we find this balance?
[4:21] OK, so that's going to be the focus and the theme of this
[4:24] episode, training in Windsor, training in the snow, getting
[4:28] through this with the minimum disruption, but the maximum
[4:31] safety and avoiding ruin. OK, couple of things you can do
[4:34] to help us out before we get started.
[4:35] If you like and enjoy this episode, it'd be really great if
[4:38] you gave us a follow on Spotify or Apple podcasts and you liked
[4:42] and subscribe. That'd be brilliant.
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[4:54] And also, if you're looking for help and advice with your
[4:56] triathlon training, maybe you've got an Iron Man or a 70.3 this
[4:59] year, please do get in touch. We work with over 150 age
[5:03] groupers just like you probably. I think we've got a fantastic
[5:07] system for helping busy age groups out.
[5:10] Just e-mail us at help@oxygenaddict.com or if you
[5:13] want to go to our website, itsteam.oxygenaddict.com, you
[5:18] can read all about the coaching options that we've got there.
[5:21] See if it sounds like it'll work for you and if it does, drop us
[5:24] a line and we'll get in contact and we'll see how we can best
[5:27] help you out. And just before we jump on with
[5:29] the rest of the show, a sponsor shout out.
[5:31] I'm really fortunate to be to be supported by Precision Fuel and
[5:35] Hydration. You can use their free fuel and
[5:38] hydration planning tool on their website to receive a
[5:40] personalised strategy for your next race.
[5:42] The planner basically helps you understand your own
[5:44] carbohydrate, electrolyte, and fluid needs.
[5:47] You can also book a free 1 to one video consultation with PF
[5:50] and HS Athlete support team. They'll be happy to help you
[5:53] nail your race nutrition plan. Remember, if you decide to make
[5:56] a purchase, you can use the code Oxygen 24 for 15% of your first
[6:00] order. I think they're a fantastic
[6:02] company. I think the products are the
[6:04] best out there in terms of fuelling and hydration.
[6:06] We don't have to work with them, we choose to work with them.
[6:09] We've been partners with them now for about a decade.
[6:12] So I really believe in the people behind the company and
[6:14] the products and the advice they give.
[6:16] So go over and check it out right then.
[6:18] So winter training, training in the snow, training in this, you
[6:23] know, unprecedented weather that we're facing at the moment here
[6:27] in the UK, in the UK. Here are some tips to help keep
[6:30] your training rolling during this time and in no particular
[6:34] order. And you'll see as we go through
[6:35] this, I'm going to go through swim, bike and run first.
[6:39] I don't actually think the swim, bike and run are the three most
[6:42] important things for you to be considering at the moment.
[6:44] And I'll come on to why later on.
[6:46] So first up, swimming. It's tempting to think that
[6:49] swimming won't be disrupted by snow because you can drive to
[6:53] the pool. It's indoors, the waters there,
[6:55] it's turned on. But here's the big challenge,
[6:59] It's the getting out of the door.
[7:01] Often it's early before work or it's late after work and you'll
[7:04] find the car needs defrosting when you get to the pool.
[7:08] The car park is often icy and it's dangerous to get in there.
[7:12] So this is my first avoid ruin idea.
[7:14] It's considering whether you'd be better doing something else
[7:18] rather than facing the the early morning drive or the late
[7:22] afternoon drive to the pool. If this doesn't apply to you,
[7:24] then fine. But if that does apply to you,
[7:26] be very, very careful. As I said, my own personal
[7:29] experience as an athlete being really driven, that this year
[7:32] was going to be the year that I made the difference to my
[7:34] swimming. Driving to the pool on the way
[7:36] to work, getting there for opening time at 6:00, walking
[7:40] through the dark car park and literally like something from a
[7:43] scooby-doo cartoon, slipping on some black ice I hadn't seen in
[7:47] the dark, my legs going up into the air.
[7:49] I honestly thought I'd broken my shoulder and my arm hitting the
[7:52] ground so hard. It took me out of the pool for a
[7:55] week. I was so sore after it I
[7:57] couldn't go in and swim that day.
[7:59] And it was an example of having been driven by compulsion, not
[8:02] the what's the best thing to do right now?
[8:05] I could easily have avoided that.
[8:07] So make sure it's actually safe enough for you to go and think
[8:11] about it in in those terms. If you can, great, go to the
[8:15] pool and get you swimming no problem.
[8:18] But if you can't, what's the next best thing you can do?
[8:20] Well, there's a couple of options directly swim related,
[8:24] and then there's other options as well.
[8:26] The first thing I think you can do is you can look at using swim
[8:29] chords. You can get a set of those off
[8:31] Amazon relatively cheaply. And you can do a couple of sets
[8:34] of the swim chord exercises, really simple to Google that on
[8:37] YouTube, get some good swim chord exercises.
[8:40] The idea of them is not that you're going to do a 20 to 40
[8:44] minute workout with swim chords lying on a bench and I'm
[8:48] pretending that you're swimming using swim chords.
[8:50] I know there are companies out there selling these these days.
[8:54] I don't hold with it at all. I don't think it has any
[8:57] meaningful effect on your swim fitness and I advise you against
[9:00] it. Personally, as a coach, I think
[9:01] it's a waste of time. Other people might have a
[9:03] different point of view and that's fine.
[9:05] But this is just my my personal advice to you.
[9:08] You can use swim chords, though, to do very specific swim chords
[9:11] drills that are going to help strengthen the muscles that
[9:14] you're going to be using in swimming.
[9:16] For our athletes, we've got links to those through our
[9:18] private athlete app. If you're not one of our
[9:20] athletes, Google on YouTube swim coaches swim drills using swim
[9:24] chords. It is possible to do sets of six
[9:27] to 10 in a meaningful way. That's going to help you feel as
[9:29] though you are activating your swimming muscles.
[9:32] The next thing I think you can do is swim related stretches.
[9:35] There's again, series of stretches you can do that's
[9:37] really going to help loosen off your shoulders and back and
[9:40] that's going to directly help you when you go into the pool
[9:43] and you return to swimming later on.
[9:46] OK, moving over onto the bike, the bike is probably going to be
[9:51] the the sport that is the most affected by the snow.
[9:54] And I would say this if you look out the window and the snow on
[9:56] the ground, just don't ride outdoors.
[9:58] Certainly don't consider riding your road bike.
[10:01] There's the possibility that you can go and you can ride an off
[10:04] road bike if you've got access, if you're lucky enough to have
[10:07] suitable trails that you can ride off road.
[10:10] But again, that first principle has got to be a void ruin.
[10:14] Don't do something that's going to put you at danger of having
[10:17] an injury later on. And slipping on ice and sliding
[10:20] off a bike at this time of year is something that a relatively
[10:24] small lapsing concentration can lead to.
[10:27] A broken shoulder, a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm and
[10:30] you're out of training there for, you know, minimum 8 weeks,
[10:34] possibly 12 to 16 weeks. So I'd really caution you
[10:39] against even deciding you're going to go and ride off road.
[10:41] What you can do is you can use a gym bike or you can ride on the
[10:45] turbo. And I'd advise you to do this as
[10:47] your your primary method of training.
[10:50] Even doing your long ride indoors on the turbo trainer,
[10:53] even if you have to cut it short because you can't stick, you
[10:56] know, the two or three hour ride that you might have planned, I
[10:59] think it's better to do that indoors.
[11:01] It's better to do anything indoors actually than to go
[11:04] outdoors and risk coming off on the ice.
[11:07] If you haven't got a turbo or you haven't got access to it or
[11:10] you're travelling, then going indoors on the gym bike is the
[11:13] next best thing. Again, even if you needed to be
[11:15] guided by heart rate and there's no power metre on the bike, use
[11:18] the gym bike to keep yourself safe during this period.
[11:22] So moving on to running, running is probably the safest of the
[11:26] three sports to try and do. If you have access to off road
[11:30] routes where you can wear appropriate footwear.
[11:33] If it isn't safe to do that. If you don't have access, again,
[11:37] I would say the treadmill indoors is your first option to
[11:40] go to avoid ruin. That's the first thing.
[11:43] Avoid picking up injuries, avoid slipping and sliding around on
[11:46] the ice. So the treadmill is a great
[11:47] option. If not, if you've got access to
[11:51] playing fields where you can go and you can run where and either
[11:53] running spikes or shoes with mini crampons on, I think that's
[11:57] the next best bet. If you can do that and it's not
[11:59] affecting your running gate, then fantastic.
[12:02] Again, I think a short run is better than no run at this time
[12:05] of year. So get yourself to the point
[12:07] where you can go. And even if you weren't doing 15
[12:09] to 20 minutes instead of your planned run, I think it's worth
[12:13] doing that as long as it's safe. Again, if you're facing any kind
[12:17] of situation where there's ice around, you might be better off
[12:21] either not doing the run or going indoors.
[12:23] Go to the gym, use the treadmill.
[12:25] So safety has got to be your first priority there.
[12:29] Next up, strength conditioning. Now we're into the realms now
[12:32] where this is not going to be affected.
[12:34] Swim, bike and run are all going to be affected because of your
[12:37] access to either the pool or the bike or the running.
[12:40] Strength conditioning is not going to be.
[12:43] Even if you usually go to a gym to do this and you can't get to
[12:46] the gym, there are exercises that you can do at home.
[12:48] Again, our athletes, our strength conditioning programme,
[12:52] the athletes that we coach, it's all planned to be done at home
[12:55] without needing any equipment. So spend a little bit of extra
[12:59] time focusing on getting your S&C done.
[13:02] I wouldn't advise you to do it every day, especially if you're
[13:04] someone who hasn't been doing a lot of strength conditioning.
[13:08] But every other day you should be fine to do your strength and
[13:11] conditioning exercises. And again, focus on doing the
[13:14] things that are going to make the difference to you.
[13:16] I'm always a big advocate of saying the exercises that will
[13:20] help glute activation and hamstring strength and
[13:23] activation. You don't have to do very many
[13:26] of them to have the effect of essentially waking up those
[13:30] muscles that might not have been used very much if you've been
[13:33] sitting around a lot over the Christmas holidays.
[13:35] So you can get those done at home.
[13:38] If you're lucky enough to have the relevant weights and
[13:42] equipment at home as well, it's a great time to do a little bit
[13:44] of extra weight training while you can't get outside in the
[13:47] snow. So strength conditioning is
[13:49] something that definitely is often the first thing to give
[13:53] for athletes and honestly for most age group athletes, it
[13:56] should be the first thing to be done during your programme
[13:58] because it's the thing that's going to keep you injury free.
[14:02] That's what it's designed for. Conditioning is not there to
[14:05] make you strong per SE, it's there to give you the muscular
[14:09] strength and the muscular activation to allow you to swim,
[14:12] bike and run injury free. So approach it that way and
[14:16] place it at a time in the week where essentially you are going
[14:20] to get it done no matter what. OK, moving on now to the fifth
[14:25] item, and I think this is actually the most important item
[14:28] of any athletes week is to focus on recovery during this time
[14:32] when it's snowy outside. I think recovery from training
[14:37] is the most important part of training.
[14:40] You're not going to get any adaptations if you don't fully
[14:43] recover from the training that you've been doing.
[14:45] And often athletes struggle with this.
[14:48] They, they will, they will come to us and the kind of expect a
[14:51] pat on the back if they say, you know, I, I cut the sleep to get
[14:55] the workout done or I missed a rest day to get this extra
[14:58] workout done that missed the week before.
[15:01] And the quite surprised when I say to them, look, you have to
[15:03] make the rest and recovery for part of your training the non
[15:08] negotiable. It's the time where you're going
[15:10] to recover from what you have already done.
[15:12] And so if we're faced with the time as we are at the moment
[15:16] with snow on the ground, my advice to you would be, well,
[15:19] how can you look at the bigger picture here?
[15:21] For most of us, if you've, if you've had anything like the
[15:24] Christmas holidays I've had, I stayed up too late a lot of the
[15:27] time. I went out and had much more
[15:31] social interactions and parties and things like that than I
[15:34] usually do and I ended up feeling really frazzled by it.
[15:37] I missed out on a lot of sleep. I'm not even a person who
[15:40] drinks. So if you're a person who does,
[15:43] you've got that added sort of alcohol fatigue added on top of
[15:46] it as well. It's a great time right now to
[15:49] get some extra rest and to focus on extra sleep.
[15:52] And if that means you usually get up early to go for a swim,
[15:55] well, perhaps it's worth considering cutting that swim
[15:58] from your schedule while it's difficult to get to the pool and
[16:01] having an extra hour in bed. I'm a really big believer in our
[16:04] circadian rhythms. And during January, we, we
[16:07] naturally need more sleep than we may do in June, July, August.
[16:11] So it's a good time to think, right?
[16:13] I'm going to cut my losses here. I'm going to get an extra hour
[16:16] of sleep every night this week. And if that means not going to
[16:19] the pool or not getting up to do the workout or not getting up as
[16:23] early to do the workout, get that extra sleep if it's what
[16:27] you honestly need to balance your last 2-3 weeks out.
[16:32] So sit down, look at what you did over the Christmas period.
[16:35] I know a lot of the messages that are coming into me from my
[16:38] athletes, a lot of them are saying, look, I didn't do a huge
[16:41] amount of training over the Christmas period, but I feel
[16:44] really wiped out anyway. I had a lot of parties to go to.
[16:47] I burned the candle at both ends.
[16:50] So we have to get ourselves recovered and into a position
[16:52] where we're ready to train before our body is going to
[16:55] absorb any meaningful training. So make recovery the absolute
[17:00] focus of this time when it's hard to get outside and train
[17:03] anyway. You may even want to consider if
[17:06] you've got access to the gym and you can go to the gym, you may
[17:09] want to consider going in and booking yourself a massage at
[17:12] the gym or booking a massage a massage therapist helping your
[17:16] body recover from the block of training you've done before
[17:19] Christmas. OK, Next up is looking at your
[17:23] nutrition. It's a great time to spend the
[17:26] extra time that you you might not be able to do the usual
[17:29] swim, bike, run training that you're doing.
[17:31] Maybe you could spend half an hour going through cookery books
[17:35] and thinking about planning out some meals that you can then use
[17:38] for the rest of the year. Now, a lot of people have
[17:42] overindulged during the holiday periods.
[17:44] Let's be honest. Like I said, I don't drink, but
[17:47] I definitely find that I eat much more than I usually would
[17:51] do and I eat much later into the evening than I usually would do
[17:56] and I eat a lot more despite my best efforts.
[17:59] I eat a lot more processed foods and sweets and things like that
[18:03] during the holiday period. You've heard me say this before,
[18:06] I am a devil for smashing a bag of celebrations.
[18:09] It's really, really hard for me to to put them down when I get
[18:13] started. And I don't think I'm alone in
[18:15] this. So if you're similar, if you've
[18:17] if you've overindulged in alcohol, sugar, processed foods
[18:20] and sweets and cakes during the holidays, now is a really good
[18:23] time to focus on reducing them or cutting them out entirely.
[18:27] Reset your habits. Think about what works for you,
[18:32] and certainly for me as an ageing athlete getting into my
[18:34] 50s. I know that my habits have to be
[18:37] that I don't eat in the evening after I've had my evening meal.
[18:40] And know that I need to work on reducing the amount of carbs I
[18:43] have with my evening meal if I want to regain any kind of body
[18:47] composition going into the spring.
[18:49] And I'm looking forward to our Majorca training camp in April.
[18:52] I'd like to get there a good bit lighter than I am at the moment.
[18:55] I've put on probably close to 10 lbs from where I was our last
[18:59] Majorca training camp, so I've got to make some gradual
[19:02] changes. If this is resonating with you.
[19:05] Then again, the gradual changes are a really good thing to ease
[19:08] into and it's a good thing for us to focus on at a time when
[19:12] it's going to be hard for us to get out and do any meaningful
[19:15] training, certainly outdoors. So have a look at that nutrition
[19:18] piece. How can you focus on sort of
[19:22] changing the habits rather than removing things?
[19:25] So how can we increase our lean protein intake?
[19:27] How can we increase veggies, increase fruit, increase the
[19:31] water that we drink? I prefer to think of it that way
[19:33] rather than how do I reduce my carbs, reduce alcohol, reduce
[19:38] sugar, reduce sweets? It's what can I change over to?
[19:42] So this evening I've got a big veggie stir fry with chicken
[19:46] planned. That's a really good way to
[19:48] think about doing it. And I'm I'm a devil for not
[19:51] doing it, but I have today. I know what today's evening meal
[19:54] is going to be and it's planned out in advance.
[19:56] And because of that, I'm not going to be thinking I've got to
[19:59] restrict myself to not eat XY and Z later.
[20:03] I've got a huge vegetable stir fry that will be honestly, it'd
[20:06] be a bit of a challenge to get through it looking at it, but
[20:09] that's good. That's personally what I need.
[20:12] So go away and work out what it is that you need.
[20:15] If you need to make these similar changes.
[20:18] And then there's one last thing I want to come to here that you
[20:21] can focus on during this time of winter and snow on the ground.
[20:25] It's looking at overall life balance.
[20:28] Is there a way you can schedule time into your day to get out
[20:32] during daylight and go and have a walk outside in the daylight?
[20:36] Can you get yourself outdoors from Meaningful Walk to replace
[20:40] the fact you might not be able to bike or run as well as you
[20:44] usually would do outdoors? We need something to replace
[20:47] those usual workouts that we can do so again.
[20:49] For me, this morning had an hour's Meaningful Walk outdoors
[20:53] as the sun came up and it really gave me the same sense of being
[20:57] outdoors that I would get from going for a run.
[21:01] It wasn't safe for me to do so. So that meaningful work really
[21:04] replaced that and I got back ready to go to work in the same
[21:07] mindset that I would do after a run.
[21:10] Now, I wouldn't usually be like that if I'd just got out, looked
[21:12] out the window and thought, right, I can't get out in this
[21:14] weather. I'm just going to go straight to
[21:16] work. So look at ways to get outside
[21:18] and have a walk in daylight. And the the last thing here and
[21:22] probably the most important is if you're lucky enough to have
[21:26] snow on the ground, how can you actively schedule some time with
[21:29] your family members, with your kids if you have them to go and
[21:33] play in the snow? We don't get an awful lot of it
[21:35] in the UK where we live. We scheduled some time at the
[21:38] weekend. We, we saw the forecast was
[21:40] coming in. We were going to my parents
[21:42] house and we packed the car up and we, we, I dug the sledge out
[21:45] of the roof and it was, you know, classic buried at the back
[21:48] of the roof because it has been used for about four years.
[21:52] Found all the gloves, found all the waterproofs, the hats.
[21:54] So when we did wake up and it snowed, we could go straight out
[21:58] in it. Now there wasn't very much where
[21:59] we were, but there was enough to get my teenage son out on a
[22:03] sledge. He's probably only been on the
[22:05] sledge three times in his life because we don't get a lot of
[22:08] it. So plan that in plan a bit of
[22:10] balance. I think the life balance for
[22:13] triathletes is something that we really can struggle with.
[22:17] And so I encourage all our athletes to spend a little bit
[22:19] of time planning what you can do with your family and your kids.
[22:23] As much as we plan how to do our own slightly selfish training,
[22:28] putting a bit of time into that can really pay dividends back to
[22:33] you in the way that it will make your family feel much more well
[22:38] disposed towards you. If instead of saying I have to
[22:41] go and get on the bike as your first priority in the day, it's
[22:44] we have to get the kids outside and go sledging or build a
[22:47] snowman. So I hope that these tips have
[22:50] been useful. I hope you get some meaningful
[22:53] training done during this time, but I hope you really enjoy the
[22:56] fact that we've got a little bit of winter Wonderland outside at
[22:59] the moment and you make really good use of it.
[23:02] I'm going to wrap this week's show up with some discount codes
[23:05] and deals for you. So over at
[23:06] precisionfuelandhydration.com you can use the code Oxygen 24
[23:10] for 15% off your first electrolyte order and Team
[23:13] Oxygen addict.com. If you're looking for coaching
[23:15] for this year, I think we've got the most comprehensive triathlon
[23:18] coaching programme for busy age groupers.
[23:21] We've got a special offer running during January.
[23:24] We usually offer an annual membership that's massively
[23:27] reduced from our pay, monthly membership.
[23:31] We're going to offer a nine month long season membership
[23:34] that's going to run through to the end of September and it's
[23:37] going to be cheaper than our annual membership.
[23:40] Obviously it's going to be a lot cheaper than paying monthly.
[23:44] So if you're looking for coaching and you've had a look
[23:46] and thought, well, finances don't work for me or I don't
[23:49] want to make a year long commitment.
[23:52] I think that this season long membership to take you through
[23:55] to the the end of September is going to be, it's a really good
[23:58] rate. It's a rate you'll be able to
[24:00] lock in for the rest of your membership.
[24:02] In fact, it'll get cheaper if you decide to renew with us in
[24:04] September. So contact us for details of
[24:07] that. If you book a call with us
[24:08] during January, we'll honour that season long discount
[24:13] essentially. So if you're looking for
[24:16] quality, proven coaching for arm on a 70.3 triathlon, please get
[24:19] in touch and we'll have a chat and see how we can help you out.
[24:21] If you're interested, there's a link in the show notes to book a
[24:24] call. We'll see if you'd be a good fit
[24:26] for joining the team. So remember there's links in the
[24:28] show notes. You don't have to remember them
[24:30] until next week. Have a great safe training week
[24:33] and racing as well if you're racing.
[24:35] I'm coach Rob Willby and you've been listening to the Oxygenatic
[24:38] podcast. See you.

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