# Winter Training That Actually Works: Real Athlete Questions Answered | Ep 566

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 25 Nov 2025, 30 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/ea99f7d8/podcast/play/111673335/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-10-25%2Ff6857b62-5a33-62e0-be96-a5c64f933164.m4a

BLACK FRIDAY 2025 Special Offer: Save £200 on an annual membership to Team Oxygenaddict! Book an application call before the end of November 2025 to qualify (https://team.oxygenaddict.com/consultation-call/ ) * * * * * * * * * * * * This week Coach Rob answers real athlete questions about winter training. Including structured turbo sessions, ERG mode, adapting to aero position, FTP testing, managing run pacing, treadmill accuracy, and when (or if) to do winter run races or club sessions. You’ll learn: • How to structure bike training for maximum FTP gains • Why easy winter runs are essential for Ironman performance • How to build aero comfort & strength step-by-step • Which bike upgrades actually deliver speed next season • Why your winter FTP might be lower (and why that’s normal) • How to fix wacky TSS numbers from easy runs • The right way to use treadmills without risking injury If you’re preparing for an Ironman or 70.3 next summer — this episode will help you train smarter, stay consistent, and protect your legs while making big fitness gains on the bike. Plus: details of Team OxygenAddict’s £200 Black Friday discount on annual coaching membership if you book a call before the end of November. * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * 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.
[0:07] 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 and every week we bring you an
[0:22] episode of this podcast to help educate, motivate and inspire
[0:25] you. On this weeks episode, I'm going
[0:27] to be answering athlete questions about bike training
[0:30] and run training of the winter period for when you're aiming
[0:33] for a summer Iron Man and 73. Before we get started, there's a
[0:37] couple of things you can do to help us.
[0:38] Please, if you enjoy this episode, please follow us on
[0:41] Spotify or like us on Ale podcasts.
[0:44] And if you're looking for help training for your first Iman or
[0:46] 70.3, check out the coaching memberships over at
[0:49] teamoxygenaddict.com. I think we've got the most
[0:52] comprehensive triathlon coaching programme that's specifically
[0:55] designed for busy age groupers. If you're interested, there's a
[0:58] link in the show notes to book a membership call.
[1:00] We've actually had a few slots come up in the team this month
[1:03] from members who are ending their coaching and moving away
[1:05] from triathlon and it's a great time to book a call with us.
[1:09] We're going to have a special Black Friday special offer on.
[1:12] We're going to be having £200 off the price of an annual
[1:16] coaching membership that offers good through to the end of
[1:20] November 2025. OK, let's get to these
[1:24] questions. Firstly, what's the real
[1:27] difference between structured indoor bike sessions and just
[1:31] riding on swift or group rides outdoors?
[1:34] And when should I use each one of them during winter?
[1:39] OK, so my advice to hear is going to be if you're limited in
[1:43] time, spend your time training in the most structured way.
[1:47] That's going to give you, if you like, the biggest return on
[1:49] investment of the training time that you put in.
[1:52] And structured indoor bike training sessions are going to
[1:55] give you a faster increase in your fitness than just riding,
[1:58] whether that's just riding indoors or just riding outdoors.
[2:01] The structure of that, having specific interval training at
[2:05] specific intensities and be really clear what what changes
[2:09] in your fitness you want to affect here.
[2:11] That's the best way to get the fastest improvement in your bike
[2:15] fitness, and in fact your overall fitness for Iron Man and
[2:18] 70.3 next year. That's not to say there isn't
[2:22] value in just riding on Swift or just going out for group ride or
[2:26] going for a ride with your friends.
[2:28] But the aim of doing those rides, it isn't the same as the
[2:31] specific aerobic fitness improvement you're going to be
[2:33] getting from an interval session on something like Swift or
[2:36] Roofy. It's a great way to go outside
[2:40] and get some fresh air outdoors in nature.
[2:42] That's really important. It's a great way to go and spend
[2:44] time with your friends. It's a great way to get some
[2:47] social time. Obviously you don't have the
[2:49] outside benefit and you don't really have the the social
[2:52] benefit if you're riding your long ride or you run structured
[2:55] riders, but you do have some other people around you.
[2:58] And honestly, anything that motivates you to get the
[3:01] training done is going to be a really good thing.
[3:03] So if the structure of of having other people riding around you
[3:07] on a as WIFT group ride gets you to do a session that you
[3:10] wouldn't otherwise have done, great.
[3:12] If the idea of interval training on Swift gets you to do the
[3:15] training you wouldn't have all otherwise done, then then also
[3:18] great. But the bottom line here is
[3:22] assuming that you're motivated to make changes in your fitness
[3:25] for next season, the best way to go about that is going to be
[3:28] with two structured interval sessions a week and 1 longer
[3:32] unstructured aerobic ride every week.
[3:35] And I think it's worth remembering that you have to
[3:38] tailor this training to suit both you and your goals, but
[3:41] also the mentality that you have.
[3:43] If you're at the phase right now where you would rather just be
[3:46] riding with friends outside and you're willing to sacrifice some
[3:48] of the gains you would get by training specifically, that's
[3:51] absolutely fine. And if you really focus on
[3:54] performance gains for next season, it might be that you
[3:57] have to sacrifice some of the social time with friends in
[4:00] order to apply yourself a little bit more to the structure
[4:03] training. So you're going to get bit more
[4:05] of those returns if you like. If you can balance those out,
[4:08] great. Two indoor sessions a week,
[4:11] they'll be done really quickly. If you've got a place you can
[4:13] leave your bike set up on the trainer indoors, A1 hour bike
[4:17] session can can take you an hour and 5 minutes if you leave your
[4:20] kit ready to go. It often takes a lot longer than
[4:23] that to get ready to go for a ride outdoors.
[4:25] So those are the things I would consider that next question, how
[4:30] can I increase the amount of time that I can comfortably hold
[4:33] my arrow position during my winter trainer rides?
[4:37] OK, so my advice here is to treat getting into arrow
[4:41] position for the first time. Let's deal with that section
[4:44] first. Treat it as interval training
[4:47] for your body's ability to hold a new position.
[4:51] As you're lower at the front, as you're you're bent over more, as
[4:54] your elbows are more tucked in, it is going to feel
[4:57] significantly different. And you've got to expect it to
[4:59] not feel as comfortable at first as riding in your standard
[5:04] sitting up on the hoods position would be on the bike.
[5:07] And it's going to take some time to adjust to that.
[5:09] And I think you have to accept that.
[5:11] Usually we find it somewhere in the region of four to six weeks
[5:14] to go from being really comfortable riding on a road
[5:17] bike position to being really comfortable riding in a
[5:21] dedicated TT position. It's likely you're going to be
[5:25] able to put out less power when you're in your railroad
[5:27] position. So bear that in mind if you've
[5:29] done an FTP test in a road bike position, if you try and hold
[5:32] those numbers in an arrow position for the first time, the
[5:35] chances are you're not going to be able to put out as much power
[5:38] as easily. So two things I think you need
[5:42] to do. You need to spend a few sessions
[5:45] treating it as though you are, if you like doing that interval
[5:52] training for your body's position.
[5:54] So spend a few minutes in the arrow position, spend a few
[5:57] minutes sitting up. It's best to do that before you
[5:59] actually get into the real main block of your winter interval
[6:02] training because you want to be doing as much of your interval
[6:05] training as you can in your arrow position.
[6:08] So you need to be relatively well adapted to that at the
[6:11] time. Now for those of you with a
[6:12] multiple season fitness already, you'll probably find you can go
[6:16] into your your interval training and treat it as whatever the the
[6:21] length of the interval is. Say it's 4 or 5 or 6 minutes.
[6:24] Do that period of time down in the arrow bars and then sit up
[6:28] on the hoods for your recovery and get back into the arrow bars
[6:31] to work hard and train your body that way to get used to being in
[6:35] that position. And again, initially over
[6:37] winter, you'll find the focus can be just on having the
[6:41] position with your elbows on the pads and your hands out on the
[6:44] extensions. You can look straight down at
[6:47] the floor when you're training indoors without any kind of
[6:50] penalty. Obviously, as you get closer to
[6:52] the end of winter and you get toward the point when you're
[6:55] going to be riding outdoors in the outer position, you have to
[6:58] learn to go from this head down position to lifting your neck up
[7:03] so you can actually see down the road where you're going to be
[7:05] going. And my experience is it takes
[7:07] probably another two to four weeks to get these these muscles
[7:11] in your neck and your shoulders used to holding that position
[7:13] outdoors, both as a function of you have to be looking U the
[7:17] road so your neck is more extended, but also indoors on
[7:22] the train where everything's really smooth outdoors when
[7:25] you're going over different Rd surfaces and potholes.
[7:28] That's part of it as well. So it's really usual to come
[7:30] back from your first few outdoor arrow position rights with quite
[7:34] a sore neck. For those of you racing, in
[7:37] fact, either 70.3 or Iron Man, it's a long period of time to
[7:41] hold that position for. So you're going to have to
[7:43] expect to spend some time getting into the arrow position.
[7:47] Bottom line being the more time you can train in the arrow
[7:50] position during the winter, the more adapted you're going to be
[7:53] to it. The more accurate your numbers
[7:55] are going to be training in that position.
[7:58] And then as you transition to ride outdoors, the easier it's
[8:01] going to be to make that transition at the end of winter
[8:03] to comfortably hold your aero position.
[8:06] And if I can make recommendation to people, if you're considering
[8:10] getting a time trial bike or considering getting aero bars on
[8:13] your road bike, do it now. Do it as soon as you can.
[8:17] Start using that position indoors and get used to it
[8:20] because you will then become conditioned in that position.
[8:23] OK, next question. Over winter I'm looking to
[8:26] upgrade my bike. I'm looking to either improve my
[8:29] bike components. What should I first focus on
[8:32] 1st? Should it be group set?
[8:34] Should it be wheels, Should it be tyres, handlebars?
[8:38] I'm a little bit lost. OK, so it's a great, great
[8:40] question. And if you're looking to upgrade
[8:43] to bike components, there are some real great things to
[8:46] consider. The first thing I would say is
[8:50] if you are upgrading from one mechanical group set to the next
[8:55] level up of the mechanical group set, you're likely not really
[8:58] going to see very much of an actual change in how the bike
[9:03] feels. So it's likely unless the the
[9:05] components are completely worn out, it's likely that you're
[9:08] spending money and you're not really going to feel any
[9:10] difference or even save any time.
[9:13] Essentially if you're upgrading from a mechanical group set to
[9:16] an electronic group set, well it is likely going to notice a
[9:19] difference there. Having been through the change
[9:22] myself 678 years ago, going from convinced out I was happy on
[9:27] mechanical and didn't need electronic shifting over to
[9:29] electronic shifting, I'm a personally a massive fan of it.
[9:34] Shifts so smooth really really big fan of the the ease of
[9:38] changing gear and that's especially true if you're riding
[9:41] on a TT bike where you've got the option then to have shifters
[9:44] on both the aero bars and on the on the hoods of your handlebars
[9:50] as well. So really useful there in that
[9:52] situation I think it can be worth considering changing from
[9:56] mechanical over to electric. The consideration there becomes
[10:02] it might well be worth looking at selling that bike and buying
[10:05] a new bike that comes with the electric components because
[10:08] there's all manner of challenges hiding the battery away if
[10:11] you're using Shimano or it's just more complicated changing
[10:16] from mechanical to swapping over the components.
[10:18] So consider that it might be that a whole new bike is a
[10:20] better option for you. And who knew I'd be recommending
[10:23] you guys buy a new bike, right? Everyone needs a little bit of
[10:26] encouragement to buy the new bike.
[10:28] So I think going to electronic shifting, personally, if you
[10:31] have the money, I think it's it's worth the upgrade.
[10:34] It's really nice to have. It'll make the bike feel
[10:37] significantly nicer to ride. However, I wouldn't recommend
[10:42] spending the money on that over spending the money and other
[10:45] things. So if you are looking to spend
[10:47] some money to make yourself go faster next year, the things you
[10:50] need to think about in order are time trial bars.
[10:54] If you don't already have those on your road bike and you don't
[10:57] want to swap over to a full TT bike, that'd be the first thing
[11:00] I would go to. The speed gains you're going to
[11:02] have by learning to ride in the arrow position are going to
[11:04] outweigh any of the money that you're going to spend, apart
[11:07] from perhaps skin suit and arrow helmet.
[11:11] The next upgrade I would go with is tyres, is to get yourself a
[11:14] really decent set of racing tyres and obviously save them
[11:17] for the end of winter. Don't put them on until you get
[11:20] well into spring when the weather's nice.
[11:21] You want to really save those. But again, if we're talking in
[11:25] terms of numbers here, going from the Gator skin type winter
[11:29] tyres to decent race tyres, you're probably looking at a
[11:32] gain of about 12 watts per wheel.
[11:36] So it's the equivalent of adding 25 watts onto your FTP in terms
[11:39] of the reduction of rolling resistance.
[11:41] So it's a massive, massive amount of free speed for the, I
[11:46] don't know, let's say under £100 you spend on a couple of decent
[11:49] new race tyres. So that's really worth
[11:51] considering. The next thing to think about is
[11:53] a really good set of aero race wheels and somewhere in the 40
[11:56] to 60 millimetre range per of carbon deep section wheels.
[12:01] Again, that's going to be free speed essentially once you've
[12:05] paid for the wheels, so they're not free, but it is a media
[12:09] extra speed. You're probably looking at a
[12:11] gain in speed outdoors of 1 to 2 kilometres an hour by putting
[12:16] deep section arrow wheels on. So go with the race wheels.
[12:20] So go with the race tyres first and then go with race wheels in
[12:23] that order. If you can go with the the pair
[12:25] of the upgrade, you're going to see a big increase in speed.
[12:29] So that's how I would focus. I don't see spending the money
[12:32] on the components to be a great way to go any faster.
[12:36] It's nice to have, but honestly I think the way to go is if you
[12:39] can look to spend that money and consolidate it into a whole new
[12:42] bike that already comes with electronic shifting, deep
[12:45] section wheels and decent race tyres on.
[12:48] All those wins come up once. And honestly, again, as a guy
[12:51] who didn't have a lot of money earlier on in my racing career
[12:55] and try to cut corners and buy things cheaply when they were on
[12:58] sale, you end up getting a much better deal if you if you just
[13:02] buy a Black Friday deal on one of last season's bikes that
[13:06] comes with all of these things on already if you've got the
[13:09] money to do that. OK, so there we go.
[13:11] Hope that helps. Next up, the structured winds
[13:16] turbo sessions. Should I ride in ERG mode or
[13:19] stay in the manual resistance mode?
[13:21] So for those of you who don't know what ERG mode is, it's a
[13:25] way that regardless of how fast or slow you pedal, the smart
[13:30] trainer will shift the resistance to make sure you're
[13:33] putting out the same amount of power.
[13:35] So the way that this is useful is if you're doing hard interval
[13:38] sessions, you can flicker mode on and if you start to get tired
[13:43] and if your cadence stops to drop because you're getting
[13:45] tired, effectively the trainer will increase resistance to mean
[13:49] you're still putting out the same power output.
[13:51] If you're riding in manual mode, then you start to get tired and
[13:54] your cadence starts to drop just like outdoors, you'll gradually
[13:57] start to put out less and less power.
[14:00] So that's the positive of it. The drawback, I think, and the
[14:05] reason I'm such a big fan of saying ride in manual mode is my
[14:09] friend Matt Botrel has got a great phrase.
[14:11] He says power is nothing without control and you need to learn to
[14:16] control the power. I think it's OK perhaps to use
[14:19] erg mode in the early days of training or the the early weeks
[14:22] of the winter when you kind of just getting yourself back into
[14:25] that structured training. But it's really important for
[14:29] you to learn how controlling the power feels, the effect that go
[14:34] in a few revolutions a minute faster or slower has on the
[14:38] power you're putting out, because it'll make a surprising
[14:40] amount of difference. I think it's a really, really
[14:43] good way to go, that you learn to control the power and be in
[14:45] charge of how hard you're pushing and therefore how much
[14:48] power you put out, rather than it being controlled by a
[14:51] computer and you closing your eyes and just riding.
[14:54] That way you've got a lot more control over your cadence and
[14:58] you'll also learn a bit more about the cadence that you feel
[15:01] natural at, if you like. I think the danger with Urk mode
[15:04] is as you start to tyre, your cadence starts to drop, so the
[15:09] resistance increases. So your cadence perhaps drops
[15:13] more so the resistance and you end up in a kind of like a, a
[15:17] spiral of death where the cadence ends up really, really
[15:20] slow. And that's, that's not the ideal
[15:22] way for you to be training. I'd rather you be in control of
[15:25] your own cadence and the amount of power that you're putting
[15:28] out. OK, Next up, my FTPS dropped on
[15:33] this month's baseline test at the start of my winter block.
[15:37] Does that mean I've lost fitness and is that normal?
[15:41] So for athletes who have trained one season or more at this
[15:44] point, obviously this isn't going to be relevant to you if
[15:46] this is your your first step into structured training, but I
[15:50] always recommend doing a baseline FTP test at the start
[15:54] of your interval training. The reason is we want your
[15:57] numbers to be accurate to the fitness you have now.
[16:00] And it can be really hard if you've done multiple seasons
[16:03] because it's likely that your FTP is not as high as it was at
[16:07] peak fitness in the season. Especially if you've just had an
[16:10] offseason, it's likely your numbers will be lower.
[16:13] I work on the the baseline. That your baseline test should
[16:17] come out at about 10% lower than your previous season's all time
[16:21] high doesn't necessarily mean you've lost fitness per SE.
[16:25] You're not a worse athlete. It's just you're less
[16:27] conditioned. It'll come back relatively
[16:30] quickly. But if you're trying to train at
[16:33] the numbers that you trained at during the summer, the chances
[16:36] are you're trying to push a bit too hard.
[16:38] And if I'm correct in that most athletes numbers are about 10%
[16:43] down on their seasons best at the start of the block, we
[16:46] absolutely don't want you training 10% higher than you
[16:49] should be because you're not going to get fitter any faster.
[16:52] What you're going to do is turn yourself inside out in the
[16:54] sessions. You're going to be getting less
[16:56] return than your training investment because you're going
[16:58] to be much more tired after the session.
[17:00] There's no more fitness gain happens at 110% of your FTP than
[17:05] at 100. What happens is you're just much
[17:07] more fatigued than it takes you longer to recover from.
[17:10] That session doesn't affect your FTP anymore.
[17:12] I'd in fact rather you train just under your FTP number than
[17:16] just above it. So be conservative.
[17:19] So in answer to this question, it's not a problem that your
[17:21] number is down on where it was. It is normal.
[17:24] It will come back relatively quickly.
[17:27] And I expect that at the test, at the end of this first eight
[17:31] week block, the numbers will be at least back to where they were
[17:35] and possibly even higher than before.
[17:37] So keep the faith, everything's going to be fine.
[17:42] OK? This is a really good time to
[17:43] give a shout out to our sponsors Precision Fuel and
[17:46] hydration.com. You can use the free fuel and
[17:48] hydration planning tool to receive a personalised strategy
[17:50] for your next race and the plan will also help you understand
[17:53] your own carbohydrate, electrolyte and fluid needs.
[17:56] You can also book a free one to one video consult with PF and HS
[18:00] athletes support team. Can't stress enough how awesome
[18:03] I think this company are and how important I think it is for
[18:06] winter training that you're replacing not just water, not
[18:09] just fluids, but electrolytes at the right concentration for the
[18:13] way you sweat. If you're training indoors on
[18:14] the trainer, even with a fan on, you're going to sweat a tonne of
[18:18] water out and electrolytes are going to go with that.
[18:21] You need to replace it. Otherwise, you're going to find
[18:23] out your training is compromised or worse, you're waking up in
[18:27] the night with cramps. If you're finding that's
[18:28] happening, my chances are you're not replacing the right amount
[18:32] of fluids in electrolytes during your training.
[18:34] So highly recommend you get that sorted.
[18:37] Have the water bottle with the correct amount of electrolytes
[18:39] in be as important as putting bike shoes on before you think
[18:43] about doing an indoor bike training session.
[18:45] Same goes if you're training indoors on the treadmill as well
[18:49] for the runs. So again, you can use our code
[18:51] Oxygen Fuel 25 for 15% off your first order of Precision fuel
[18:55] and hydration.com, Right? Questions here then from
[19:00] athletes about winter running. My easy winter run came out with
[19:05] a surprisingly high TSS. Is that a pacing issue or could
[19:09] cold weather or fatigue or calibration be affecting it?
[19:13] OK, so this is great question. It's really important for those
[19:16] of you who don't know what TSS is, it stands for training
[19:19] stress score. It's the way the Training Peaks
[19:22] has of trying to quantify how much training stress a given
[19:27] session has has produced for you.
[19:30] And it works on the basis that an hour at threshold on the bike
[19:34] produces 100 units of TSS, 45 minutes at threshold running
[19:40] produces 100 TSS. So again, you, you can see that
[19:44] running is generally harder on the body at the same intensity
[19:48] that cycling is. So you accumulate the training
[19:51] stress, go faster on the run than you do on the bike.
[19:55] And to a certain extent you accumulate it less slowly in the
[19:58] swim than in either the run or the bike.
[20:00] So that's worth bearing in mind as well.
[20:02] But specific to running, one thing we've found recently,
[20:05] Training Peaks has done an update.
[20:08] If you work on the basis that you should be seeing about 100
[20:11] training stress points for a 45 minute flat out threshold run,
[20:18] most people are seeing somewhere in the region of 50 TSS points
[20:22] for, if you like, for a sort of 30-40 minute easy run.
[20:26] So that should be about the numbers.
[20:27] Some people will contact us saying my training stress score
[20:30] for this 30 minute easy run was 450.
[20:33] What's going on? And the thing that's affecting
[20:36] it is Training Peaks has done an update where it defaults to
[20:40] using run power as the metric for the training stress sums.
[20:47] And the challenge here is that a lot of garments have now been
[20:49] updated to give you a measure of run power or an estimate of run
[20:53] power. And the TSS scores are not going
[20:56] to be accurate if you haven't calibrated the numbers relative
[21:01] to that, like doing a threshold test power for the run.
[21:04] So all you have to do is in the training peak settings, change
[21:08] to the run TSS setting rather than just the TSS setting.
[21:12] That'll solve it. It'll have then the correct
[21:15] amount of TSS for run based on the paces that you're running
[21:18] at. So for athletes that we work
[21:20] with, we do that for you. If this is ever an issue, flag
[21:22] it with us and we'll fix it. In 99% of cases, we've already
[21:26] taken care of it and athletes won't ever see that that's an
[21:28] issue. But for those of you not coached
[21:30] by us, that's probably where this issue is coming from.
[21:33] If you're seeing outrageously high TSS scores from a a
[21:37] relatively easy short run. Next question, How can I check
[21:42] if the pace of my easy runs is correct?
[21:44] And would I not build fitness faster if I just ran faster all
[21:48] the time? OK, so in answer to the second
[21:52] part, no, this is really, really important.
[21:56] Running, running much faster is not going to build the specific
[21:59] fitness much faster. It's just going to make you more
[22:01] tired and more fatigued and less able to do the other specific
[22:07] parts of your 70.3 in Armand training, which at the moment in
[22:10] the winter phase is you doing your really high intensity
[22:13] threshold work on the bike. So we have to train like an
[22:17] Ironman triathlete, not like a swimmer and a biker and a
[22:20] runner. We have to see that there's only
[22:22] a couple of times a week that you can go to the well and train
[22:25] really hard. And the best way to do it for a
[22:28] triathlete is to do that on the bike in this winter phase of
[22:31] training. So we don't want you pushing
[22:34] really hard on the run. We want all the runs to be easy.
[22:37] We want them specifically to be at Jack Daniels easy pace.
[22:40] For those of you not coached by us, you can just Google Jack
[22:43] Daniels V dot calculator. That'll give you all the
[22:46] information you need to know. That guy's a total genius and I
[22:50] constantly Duff my cap to him. He, he died recently sadly, but
[22:55] he's got a really good way of simply entering your recent run
[23:01] race score or even an estimate of a recent run race.
[23:04] And that will give you the paces that are appropriate for you to
[23:07] run at. And have my athletes run at E
[23:09] pace for almost all of the winter.
[23:11] So to make sure that the pace of your easy runs is correct, just
[23:16] an estimate of how fast you can run 5K or 10K at the moment is
[23:20] good enough. Most people have got a really
[23:22] good feel for that. You, you absolutely can go and
[23:26] do a 5K or 10K race if you've got no idea where your fitness
[23:30] is at the moment. But my advice would be to
[23:32] prepare for that race for a couple of weeks first.
[23:34] Make sure you've done the kind of sessions that you're going to
[23:36] need to do before doing a 5K or 10K.
[23:38] And for for all of us, it isn't often that appropriate to do
[23:42] that during the winter. OK, so just an estimate of where
[23:45] you're at at the moment. Even within a minute or two,
[23:48] it's going to have your E pace in the right zone.
[23:50] And that pace is going to be a zone.
[23:51] The zone is going to be 30 or 40 seconds wide.
[23:54] So as long as you're somewhere in that zone, phone that's the
[23:57] right pace for your easy runs at the moment.
[23:59] Remember, the key part here is we're stopping you running
[24:03] accidentally a bit too hard all the time so that you have the
[24:06] energy and the lack of fatigue to put the effort into where
[24:10] it's going to benefit you most, which is going to be a bike
[24:13] interval training. Next question, how often can I
[24:17] do running races during the winter?
[24:19] My club has a weekly 5K handicap series that I love to do.
[24:23] OK, so my advice to you here is going to be to be really clear
[24:28] on what you're going to do and why.
[24:31] If the main reason for going to do that is a social thing, to go
[24:35] and see your club mates, to get outside and see friends, then
[24:38] great. Still go down and do it.
[24:39] But dial the pace down of that run to make it an E pace run.
[24:44] Give up the fact that you're going to go and race every week
[24:46] because racing every week running, pushing yourself to the
[24:50] top end every week running is the number one way that you're
[24:53] going to derail your Iron Man training because it's very
[24:57] likely going to make you sore for any kind of athlete over 35.
[25:01] It's going to leave you sore for the next day or two and it might
[25:04] then lead to niggles or even injuries.
[25:06] OK, so I would avoid the weekly 5K handicap series as a race.
[25:11] No reason you can't go down and do it as long as you're very
[25:13] disciplined. But stay away from doing weekly
[25:16] races, which leads us on to question 4A, very similar one.
[25:19] My running club has a weekly track interval session that I
[25:22] like to do. Is that OK?
[25:25] And again, my answer to you here is I absolutely understand the
[25:29] social aspect of going down and seeing your teammates and the
[25:33] and the discipline of getting down to a session.
[25:36] But the kind of running club interval sessions that happen on
[25:40] a track end up with you running at very top end.
[25:44] Typically they are 400 metre reps, 800 metre reps, 1000 metre
[25:49] reps and when you look at the pace you end up running those
[25:52] at, you're not just not at E pace, you're above M pace.
[25:57] Often you're above T pace even you're above threshold pace on
[26:00] those runs. And then again, the danger
[26:03] becomes being saw for a day or two or three afterwards and
[26:07] that's on as potentially turning into a niggle that potentially
[26:11] turns into a pulled muscle that derails your training.
[26:15] Even without significant soreness.
[26:17] You are definitely leaving something on the table because
[26:20] that interval session is going to negatively affect your
[26:22] ability to do those two interval sessions on the bike.
[26:25] And that's where the main focus of your training is at the
[26:28] minute. OK, so I'm going to be very
[26:30] clear. I'm not telling anybody not to
[26:32] do something that they enjoy. What I'm saying is step back and
[26:36] look at the bigger picture and make a decision based on how
[26:40] important your race is to you next year, how much progress you
[26:43] want to make if you're 70.3 and Iron Man, how disciplined you
[26:47] can be. Knowing yourself and knowing
[26:49] whether you can go down to a weekly track session and just
[26:52] dial the pace all the way down so you still see your friends,
[26:55] but you're running at a much slower pace.
[26:57] That's totally appropriate as long as the pace is still
[27:00] specific to what you want to do. OK.
[27:03] And last question, I've been doing a lot of my runs on the
[27:07] treadmill and I'm not sure that the seed indoors matches the
[27:10] outdoors. And also I've read should I have
[27:12] it at a 2% incline? All right, so firstly, the the
[27:17] speed indoors matching outdoors, it probably won't do often
[27:21] treadmills are not calibrated accurately.
[27:23] So the way to go is do your outdoor runs at the pace you
[27:26] know you want to be running at, check what your heart rate is
[27:29] and then match that up indoors on the treadmill that you're at.
[27:32] So for example, your, I don't know, your outdoor E pace heart
[27:36] rate might be about 150 beats a minute.
[27:38] If you're running at supposedly the same speed on the treadmill
[27:42] and you're seeing 135 or 165, something is considerably out
[27:48] with the speed. So be aware of that.
[27:51] Then the heart rate balancing thing comes in to make sure that
[27:54] you're not going too hard on the question of the 2% incline.
[27:59] I'm not a big fan of putting the treadmill on the incline.
[28:01] The reason being it puts a lot of extra stress on your calves,
[28:04] your Salaeus, the lower leg you kind of constantly forced more
[28:08] onto your toes. So the running gate is different
[28:11] to the gate you're going to be having outdoors.
[28:14] I would rather that it's less accurate pace wise if you like,
[28:17] but that the surface that you're running at is flat.
[28:20] Treadmills then are actually a bit more forgiving than running
[28:22] outdoors. But as soon as you put it on
[28:24] that one or two percent incline, they're not only less forgiving,
[28:28] there's more stress on your soleus, your lower calf that I'm
[28:31] not a big fan of. So I would go with just running
[28:34] with the treadmill on the flat. OK then, I hope this episode
[28:38] helped you out. I'd love to hear from you
[28:41] whether the the bike training advice and the run training
[28:44] advice has significantly affected the way that you're
[28:47] going to approach a winter training.
[28:49] I guarantee you'll see results, I guarantee you'll see better
[28:52] results if you use our process than if you've just been doing
[28:55] random training sessions in previous years.
[28:57] I absolutely guarantee that even if you're just training yourself
[29:00] and you're not looking to be coached by us, I, I'm really
[29:03] push you to try something different this winter.
[29:07] And just to wrap this up, here are some discount codes and
[29:09] deals for you, Precision fuel and hydration.com.
[29:12] You can use the code oxygen fuel 2515% off your electrolyte
[29:16] order. And if you're interested in
[29:18] triathlon coaching for 70.3 or Ironman next year, we currently
[29:22] have our Black Friday special offer of £200 off an annual
[29:26] membership that's applicable if you book a membership call
[29:29] before the end of November. There's a link in the show
[29:32] notes. I'd love to have a chat with you
[29:34] and see how we might be able to help you out achieve your 70.3
[29:37] or Iron Man dreams next year. So remember, there's links in
[29:40] the show notes. You don't have to remember them.
[29:42] And until next week, have a great safe training racing week.
[29:45] I'm coach Rob Wilby and you've been listening to the Oxygen
[29:48] Addict Triathlon Podcast.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.