Episode 198
Ep. 198- Triathletes: The Unseen Struggles Behind the Glory + ultra-carb diet
In this episode:
Kicking off with a bang, we dive into the world of pro triathletes, where mental toughness is just as critical as physical strength. Tamara Jewett, a delightfully candid guest, shares her experiences of racing against not just her competitors, but also the mounting pressures of expectations and performance. We chat about how even the best athletes grapple with self-doubt, anxiety, and the relentless pursuit of perfection. Tamara's journey from a promising runner to a formidable triathlete showcases how mental battles can be just as punishing as the physical ones—who knew? She also reflects on how confidence can be built through overcoming hurdles in training, especially those daunting long rides that make you question your life choices. It’s a raw, relatable look at what it’s like to be at the top of your game while still wrestling with those pesky inner demons. Shifting gears to nutrition, we dig into the latest trend of ultra-high carb fueling strategies. Is it really necessary to load up on carbs like you’re prepping for a feast? We break down the science and sift through the evidence to find out if this approach truly benefits endurance athletes or if it’s just another passing trend. Juliet Hockman chimes in to unpack the complexities of fueling during long races, and let's just say, it’s not as straightforward as it sounds. We ponder how much is too much and whether our stomachs can actually handle all that sugar when the intensity ramps up. So, strap in and get ready for a rollercoaster of insights, tips, and a sprinkle of sarcasm because who doesn’t love a good laugh while tackling serious topics?
Segments:
[12:28]- Medical Mailbag: Ultra-carb diet
[40:59]- Interview: Tamara Jewett
Links
Transcript
Pro athletes are just people too, and I think the mental battles in sport are part of it at every level for sure.
Speaker A:And the higher level you're at, the more intensity that you're putting in.
Speaker A:I think everyone across age group and pro goes through such similar things.
Speaker A:We're all humans trying to push ourselves really hard for a really long time in an endurance sport.
Speaker A:A heart of it with the bike right now is being able to string together workouts where I build confidence by being able to overcome hurdles and workouts, finding ways to approach rides that are really long or where the power numbers feel really high, and getting through those and seeing that I can, I think there's a lot of confidence building through the training.
Speaker B:Hello and welcome once again to the Tridot Podcast.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:Coming to you as always from beautiful sunny Denver, Colorado.
Speaker B:The voice you heard at the beginning of this episode is that of my guest, a return visitor, one of my favorite professional triathletes, one of the many Canadians who are doing a great job of showing their country's flag on the professional circuit.
Speaker B:That, of course, is Tamara Jewitt.
Speaker B:Tamara had a great initial season on the Ironman distance last year, and she has started off just as well this year, taking a podium spot at Ironman New Zealand, certifying herself yet again for the Kona World Championship this fall.
Speaker B:She also had a fantastic beginning to the season in Oceania, racing in New Zealand and Australia, and getting podium spots and wins at several races there.
Speaker B: lk about what she's up to for: Speaker B:She is socially conscious, environmentally aware, and has some really interesting pursuits off of the bike and run course.
Speaker B:And she shares with me what she's been up to and what some of her passions are and I think you will enjoy that conversation.
Speaker B:And that's going to be coming up in just a little while.
Speaker B:Before we get to that, I will of course have the medical mailbag.
Speaker B:When I am joined with my friend and colleague Juliette Hockman, you will hear us talking about yet another nutritional fueling strategy.
Speaker B:This time we're going to be answering a question.
Speaker B:Not so much about low carb, not so much about high carb, but this time ultra high carb fueling.
Speaker B:Yes, that's a thing too.
Speaker B:This is something that one of our listeners reached out and asked about.
Speaker B:It has gained a little bit of attention in the ultra running world and it is making its way slowly to triathlon and other endurance sports.
Speaker B:What is ultra high carb fueling?
Speaker B:Is it something you need to know about?
Speaker B:Is it something you should consider incorporating into your own nutritional strategy?
Speaker B:We're going to take a look at the evidence and we'll bring you what it entails and whether or not it's something you should consider consider.
Speaker B:That's coming up in just a short bit.
Speaker B:Before I get to that, I do want to acknowledge that when Juliet and I recorded this segment, we were doing that just about eight or nine days ago when it was still before I was going to be leaving on the Memorial Day weekend for my first 70.3 of the year.
Speaker B:That taking place in Victoria, British Columbia, the magnificent and very challenging course, 70.3 Victoria.
Speaker B:I want to acknowledge the fact that I ran into a listener yet again in the swim shoot.
Speaker B:I had announced beforehand that I was going to be at this race and hoped that people would reach out.
Speaker B:And you know what, the best way to meet a listener is just unexpectedly.
Speaker B:And I was chatting with somebody who's going to be a future guest again in the swim shoot and while doing so, had the good fortune to have someone pipe up and say, you know what, I love your podcast.
Speaker B:I've been a longtime listener and that person was Dan Lindsay.
Speaker B:Dan had a great day out there on the course.
Speaker B:Congratulations, Dan, and thank you for saying hi.
Speaker B:I really appreciate the feedback and running into listeners and having a conversation with them is always something that I get a lot of joy from.
Speaker B:Thanks for being there.
Speaker B:Something else I got out of participating in the Victoria race because now it's done.
Speaker B:So when you hear the medical mailbag, you'll hear Juliet wishing me luck and hoping that it's going to go well.
Speaker B:I could tell you that it did go well.
Speaker B:This was the first race that I've done where I really went in unencumbered by any expectations of performance.
Speaker B:As you've heard me talk over the last year or so, I've been very invested in what's going on with my career, what's going on with my children.
Speaker B:Both of my twins are entering into their senior year.
Speaker B:They just finished their junior year in high school and they're going to be going into their senior year.
Speaker B:They are both very accomplished students and athletes.
Speaker B:My daughter especially is being recruited for a D1 pole vaulting career in college and so helping her navigate Everything that entails has been something that has brought me a lot of joy.
Speaker B:And watching her blossom into this athletic pursuit is something that I've really taken a lot of shine to in terms of being there to watch her, being there to support her, and also just learning about this sport and learning about all of what goes on and getting into D1 athletics at the NCAA level, it's really been quite a journey and because I've been doing all of that, it's taken away from my ability to train as much as I once did.
Speaker B:And so I have spoken on this program many times about how your why can change and mine has.
Speaker B:I still enjoy the training, I still enjoy the racing, but I'm not necessarily able to train at the level that I once was, where I could expect to show up at a 70 point and just hope to compete for a podium spot.
Speaker B:And so this was the first race where I went and really had no expectations of that.
Speaker B:Instead, I was going to enjoy the day.
Speaker B:My wife and I were in Victoria for our own personal reasons.
Speaker B:And so the race was really just part of that and I wanted to go out there and just have fun.
Speaker B:I knew that I wasn't going to swim well.
Speaker B:I've not been able to dedicate the same kind of time to swimming as I really need to.
Speaker B:And so the swim went about as badly as I expected it would.
Speaker B:I knew that I was in good bike shape and I had a really good day on a very challenging bike course and that was very rewarding.
Speaker B:I felt really good about the fact that despite not training nearly at the same level seven years after being at that same course, I had pretty much the same kind of bike time as I did last time, so that was a good thing.
Speaker B:And then when it got to the run, there was no way I was going to have a great run.
Speaker B:I was coming off of an injury and I knew that had not been able to put in the kind of run volume I wanted to.
Speaker B:And yet all the same, I still had the seventh best run time in my age group and all of that without paying attention at any point getting any feedback where I was in my age group.
Speaker B:I still had a solid day, finished in the top 10 of my age group, wasn't that far off the podium and honestly I was really content even though I didn't know that when I finished.
Speaker B:I finished well off my usual kind of times.
Speaker B:I'm generally a sub 5 hour half Ironman athlete.
Speaker B:I was about 5:25 on this day and I did not care.
Speaker B:I had fun I enjoyed being out there with my fellow competitors, having conversations on the run course, encouraging other people, having them encourage me, being thankful to all the volunteers and just being thankful for being, being healthy, being able to do something I love.
Speaker B:And you know what?
Speaker B:I had a great time and that was really rejuvenating because I worried after being as competitive as I've been for as many years as I've been, would I like the sport any less?
Speaker B:And the answer this weekend was a resounding no.
Speaker B:You can participate in this sport at any level and then go to a different level, be it more competitive or less, and still get as much out of it as you once did.
Speaker B:Because the sport, sport of triathlon is just so life affirming and so positive in so many ways that it's just impossible not to enjoy yourself now.
Speaker B:There's no question it's a lot easier to do these things when you're in better shape.
Speaker B:And so I definitely felt it later that day and certainly the day after.
Speaker B:But I gotta tell you, I've recovered really well and I feel pretty good.
Speaker B:A couple of days on and I'm ready to get back to training and hankering to hopefully do better the next time out.
Speaker B:Again, no expectations unencumbered, as I said, from any delusions of winning my age group or potentially even getting on a podium and whether or not I will get back to those aspirations in the future.
Speaker B:We'll see.
Speaker B:But for now I'm just content to enjoy my training and enjoy my racing and enjoy meeting other listeners like Dan, who I hope will let me know if you're going to be racing in Oregon, because I would love to meet you there because that will be my next 70.3.
Speaker B:I came across an article that was published in Triathlete Magazine, a magazine that I am a contributor for.
Speaker B:You have probably seen my medical contributions to that magazine on the website from time to time.
Speaker B:The Triathlete Magazine website had a really interesting article about DNFs this past week talking about how difficult that can be for athletes to contend with and how they have learned to separate the DNF from their identity as a triathlete.
Speaker B:And that can be really difficult.
Speaker B:I know that and I want to tell you that one of my friends, Triathlon Joe Wilson, he's a listener, he is a contributor to this podcast and a good friend of mine.
Speaker B:Over the years we have gotten to know each other quite well and Joe has a fantastic Instagram.
Speaker B:He is an amazing ambassador for this sport.
Speaker B:I think that he does so much to Encourage people to get off the couch, to get moving and to participate not just in triathlon, but in any kind of endurance sport.
Speaker B:And I think he is great for any athlete, be they competitive or not, to just get moving.
Speaker B:And anybody who puts themselves out there and is a kind of character, the way Joe is, is he puts himself out there and allows for a lot of ridicule, which he embraces in a lot of ways and pushes back to the people who troll him.
Speaker B:But sometimes those people can be hurtful for no reason other than just being hurtful.
Speaker B:Where I think it exposes a lot more about themselves than anything else.
Speaker B:And I want to say that recently Joe had his own dnf.
Speaker B:He was at Chattanooga, had one of his best swims ever, got on the bike, and very quickly after starting out on the bike, had a major mechanical where his crank actually broke, making it impossible for, for him to continue.
Speaker B:And Joe being Joe, it was disappointing for him.
Speaker B:Obviously he was very sad.
Speaker B:He had worked really hard for that race.
Speaker B:That race was going to be a defining sort of early season race to determine his form as he was moving towards Roth, which is one of his major two races for the year.
Speaker B:And so he was obviously disappointed.
Speaker B:But you know what Joe did?
Speaker B:Joe being Joe, walked himself back to transition, got into his triathlon Joe mode and was out on course cheering everybody on, volunteered at the finish line to hand out medals.
Speaker B:This guy is, is the absolute, as I said earlier, best ambassador for the sport, but also just the best ambassador for what it means to be kind, giving and just out there for everybody.
Speaker B:Doesn't matter what happens to him, he's going to be out there cheering you on.
Speaker B:People started trolling Joe about his dnf and I got to tell you, it is just exposed to me just how selfish and how terrible people can be that they feel so awful about themselves that they got to dump on somebody as good as Joe.
Speaker B:Do me a favor, if you're not following Joe, look for him.
Speaker B:Give him a follow, give him a thumbs up, give him a shout out because he deserves nothing but positives.
Speaker B:You may not always like his shtick and trust me, he's got a lot of shtick.
Speaker B:But I know him.
Speaker B:And if you come to know him the way I do, you can't help but love the guy.
Speaker B:And he deserves nothing but kudos and the positives because he really does put himself out there.
Speaker B:And like I said, if there's anybody out there who should be signposting for this sport, it's someone like Joe because he pulls A lot of people in and he gives a lot of love back.
Speaker B:So, Joe, you keep doing you and don't pay attention to these other people.
Speaker B:All right, that's all I've got to say on this subject.
Speaker B:Let's get on to a medical mailbag where we're going to talk about sweet things.
Speaker B:And those sweet things today are in the form of ultra high carb fueling.
Speaker B:Is it something that we need to consider for triathlon?
Speaker B:Let's take a look at the evidence.
Speaker B:It's coming up right after this break.
Speaker B:I am getting ready to depart for my first race of the season.
Speaker B:So that means that my friend, my colleague Juliet Hockman and I are getting together a little bit early about what, 10 days before the next episode comes out.
Speaker B:So we'll have to make sure that we don't date stamp our conversation anymore.
Speaker A:No date stamping.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:But I'm about to date stamp.
Speaker C:What race are you going to.
Speaker B:By the time you hear this?
Speaker B:By the time you hear this, I will have completed hopefully the Any.3 race in Victoria.
Speaker C:Oh, right.
Speaker A:I knew you were going to that.
Speaker C:Of course.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I'm excited.
Speaker B:I will get to see one of my athletes who I coach is going to be at that race and looking forward to that and catching up with some of the life sport crew.
Speaker B:So that's going to be fun and hoping, I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker B:Feeling a little undercooked.
Speaker B:I've been so invested in things like, I don't know, pole vault.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:But I'm gonna do my best.
Speaker B:I've gotten in a reasonable amount of training, so I'm hopeful anyways.
Speaker B:If you hear both of our voices, that means that it must be the medical mailbag.
Speaker B:It's that segment of the program when we answer your questions about whatever is in your mind about all things training, racing and recovery related.
Speaker B:Juliet, how are you?
Speaker C:I'm doing great.
Speaker C:We are looking forward to the week of camp.
Speaker C:I have women's gravel camp here starting tomorrow.
Speaker B:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker C:I know.
Speaker C:Weather looks like it's going to be great.
Speaker C:And it's the first time we've done gravel or I've done gravel.
Speaker C:I've done a women's road camp here for three years now.
Speaker C:But this is the first year of gravel only and we've got a small but mighty crew and some really great routes.
Speaker C:It's really all about go ride gravel for about an hour and a half, two hours and make sure that the halfway point is a bakery and then go Ride another hour and a half to two hours.
Speaker C:So I have my roots planned.
Speaker C:It's going to be great.
Speaker B:So I having visited with you out there, I know that you have wonderful little coffee shop slash bakeries in abundance and you also have great gravel.
Speaker B:Now out here where I live, we have amazing gravel routes, but the bakery coffee shops don't intersect with the gravel because once I start riding gravel, I'm in the middle of freaking nowhere and there are no bakeries.
Speaker B:So how are you able to get these things to kind of come together?
Speaker C:We have a number of little towns so we can Also go ride 4, 5, 6 hours and never see another soul.
Speaker C:Never see a car truck, certainly not see any commercial activity.
Speaker C:But if you plan it right, you can go and climb climbs in and then swing through a little village.
Speaker C:And these are towns where there really is coffee truck and a Mexican food truck.
Speaker C:That's it.
Speaker C:And then you can go and depart again.
Speaker C:It's funny you say that because I've been back east a lot because of visiting my family and I was on a sort of a road trip to our road trip with my brother and sister and I said, oh gosh, if we see a coffee truck we'll have to stop or like a coffee drive through those little ones you see everywhere.
Speaker C:At least in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker C:We drove two hours without seeing any little drive through coffee stops.
Speaker C:And I'm like, what is wrong with this?
Speaker C:I've gotten so used to it out here because even in rural Oregon, like town of zero thousand or zero hundred or zero dozen and there's a little coffee place, you just drive through, you get great coffee, you get someone's homemade muffins.
Speaker C:But maybe it's unique to this part of the country, I don't know.
Speaker C:But we got a lot.
Speaker B:I, I think, yeah, we'll have to.
Speaker B:You know what people, if you're listening, I want to hear where do you live and do you have the same kind of thing as Juliet does?
Speaker B:Because I gotta say that is the one thing about gravel here at Colorado that I miss because I absolutely adore my gravel rides.
Speaker B:They're beautiful.
Speaker B:I always feel so much safer.
Speaker B:I, but I have to carry all my nutrition, all my liquids.
Speaker B:I have this camelback thing that I wear.
Speaker B:It's got a two liter bag for fluid and I have two bottles and I've got all these pockets stuffed with nutrition because I don't have the luxury.
Speaker B:How great is it when you're on the four or five hour ride to be able to stop at a coffee Shop and have a.
Speaker C:For a bacon, cheese, and egg empanada freshly made an hour before.
Speaker B:Yeah, see, I don't even eat.
Speaker B:I don't even eat meat.
Speaker B:I don't even mean.
Speaker C:This sounds good, right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:No, I know.
Speaker C:No, for sure.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:This is the place we want to hear.
Speaker B:We want to hear.
Speaker B:So please head on over to the Tridoc podcast Facebook group and let us know your gravel routes and whether or not where you are in the country, if you have the luxury of having little towns or coffee shops or whatever along the way.
Speaker B:Because I got to say, I definitely feel like I'm missing out.
Speaker C:All right, we even have them on our gravel races.
Speaker C:In our gravel races, someone drives way the heck out there in the middle of the race.
Speaker C:40 Miles in, and you can stop for a fresh espresso on your race.
Speaker B:Okay, so that I will say I've talked a couple of times on this program, actually, many times about the SBT gravel, which is.
Speaker C:Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker B:Very famous, big race.
Speaker B:They do that.
Speaker B:They.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm doing it again this year.
Speaker B:They do that very well.
Speaker B:They have a. I'm trying to remember which liquor it is, but they have you climb this hill, you get to the top of the hill, and you get rewarded with shots of, like, can't remember if it's bourbon or whatever.
Speaker B:It's awesome.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's really funny.
Speaker B:And then other places, you climb a hill and they have popsicles at the top, so they do a good job with that.
Speaker B:But that's the only one I've done because I've done other gravel races here where.
Speaker B:No, you're on your own.
Speaker B:It's like, there's not much going on.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:With all this discussion about fueling, it's very appropriate because we're going to, once again, like last episode, segue right into our question.
Speaker B:So, Juliet.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:What's our question, and who's it coming from?
Speaker C:So this comes from a listener, Jesse.
Speaker C:We think your last name is pronounced Chalusta, so apologies if we got that wrong.
Speaker C:But, Jesse, thank you so much for sending this in.
Speaker C:Jesse's asking us about ultra high carb fueling.
Speaker C:Now, on this show, we have talked about low carb fueling, we've talked about fasting, we've talked about how, over the last few years, times have fallen.
Speaker C:Maybe that's because of better fueling overall, et cetera.
Speaker C:But talk to us about ultra high carb fueling and what the difference is between.
Speaker C:I just love that we're.
Speaker C:This is so American.
Speaker C:Ultra.
Speaker C:The biggest the best, the biggest.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:The ultra high carb fueling, as opposed to just high carb fueling or carb fueling.
Speaker C:So explain to us about this.
Speaker B:It was a great question.
Speaker B:I'm really happy Jesse asked it because I have to admit it was not something I knew about.
Speaker B:And so I was pleased to find something new to look into.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And this is my new intern, Sarah Lopez.
Speaker B:She took this on and she found some interesting papers that we were able to look into for this.
Speaker B:So let's define it.
Speaker B:We have talked previously about low carb fueling and this idea that you might be able to shift your metabolism to fats.
Speaker B:And we've talked about how that's not a great idea.
Speaker B:So we're gonna come back to that a little bit later because Sarah did include a paper that once again shows not a good strategy.
Speaker C:Empanadas.
Speaker C:I got one word for you.
Speaker B:Empanadas.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker C:It.
Speaker B:I do love an empanada.
Speaker B:So we remember from the discussion on the low carb fueling that there were papers that kind of established this idea that you should be taking in 30 to 60 grams an hour of carbohydrates at 4 calories per gram.
Speaker B:That works out to 120 calories to 240 calories per hour.
Speaker B:And that was a long standing thought about how you should take a nutrition during endurance sport.
Speaker B:But, but newer research in the past, I want to say, decade now, has really bumped that up.
Speaker B:It has shown that you can make use of different transporters in your gut to take in not just glucose, but fructose.
Speaker B:And that if you can train your gut, you can really maximize the intake of carbohydrates such that if you can get yourself up to ninety to a hundred grams per hour, that can really sustain your endurance efforts for longer.
Speaker B:It results in lower glycogen depletion and improved efforts over time.
Speaker B:And the way to do that is again to make sure that you're not just taking in glucose, but that you have to make use of these other transporters of sugars, including fructose.
Speaker B:So traditional 30 to 60, high 60 to 90.
Speaker B:And now we're talking this ultra high is 90 to 120.
Speaker B:So the theory behind this is that even higher carbohydrate intakes may further delay fatigue than what we've seen with the 90 area.
Speaker B:We may further preserve glycogen to allow for efforts that go on for longer and longer.
Speaker B:We may be able to improve recovery.
Speaker B:Because if you don't deplete your glycogen you don't get into proteinolysis, so you don't get into this idea of having to utilize other fuels.
Speaker B:And you're able to maintain high intensity performance for longer because you have this substrate, sugars, which is really what our cells want to use.
Speaker B:There are several articles that were found to look at this, and we can take a look at each of these right now.
Speaker B:The first of these is effects of 120 versus 60 and 90 grams per hour carbohydrate intake during a trail marathon on neuromuscular function and high intensity run capacity recovery.
Speaker B:So pretty interesting study that basically looked at this idea that if you took even higher amounts where you were over time, you trained these athletes to be able to tolerate this amount of sugar.
Speaker B:If they took in a, a mixed combination of glucose and fructose, how would they do?
Speaker B:So there were three groups.
Speaker B:They were compared against each other.
Speaker B:60 Grams per hour, 90 grams per hour, 120 grams per hour.
Speaker B:They looked at markers of fatigue and recovery being neuromuscular function, high intensity running capacity, recovery and muscle performance after the race.
Speaker B:And there were 26 athletes, so roughly eight athletes per group.
Speaker B:And what they found was utilizing these different kind of intensity exercise tests.
Speaker B:So squat jump tests, high intensity running capacity, things like that.
Speaker B:They would test neuromuscular fatigue and recovery performance.
Speaker B:And what they found is that the people taking 120 grams per hour demonstrated the best recovery and the lowest neuromuscular fatigue after running their ultramarathon.
Speaker B:90 Gram per hour showed intermediate results.
Speaker B:60 Gram per hour experienced the greatest fatigue and performance decline, indicating exactly what we might think that 90 is better than 60.
Speaker B:But oh my gosh, 120 is even better.
Speaker B:So ultra is ultra.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Do you think this has anything to do with the types of sugars?
Speaker C:Cause you just said glucose and fructose.
Speaker A:What about the other two?
Speaker C:What about maltodextrin and, and what's the other one?
Speaker C:Sucrose?
Speaker C:Do you think it's these two?
Speaker B:Maltodextrin?
Speaker B:Maltodextrin is just a chain of glucose molecules.
Speaker B:So it's just digested and liberates glucose molecules slowly.
Speaker B:And sucrose is just two glucose molecules together.
Speaker B:Oh, so you break them apart into two glucose molecules.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker B:Anything you take as a sugar is basically at its root going to be fructose or glucose.
Speaker B:Ah.
Speaker B:And it's just a matter of breaking them down and getting them into their constituent molecules and then absorbing them them and then utilizing them.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker B:So I think it's interesting that in this study, they showed exactly what I think intuitively makes sense.
Speaker B:More fuel, more ability to perform.
Speaker B:What they did not talk about and what we did not get in any of these studies was side effects.
Speaker B:And we've talked about this a lot when we talked about the high carb fueling strategy is what are we able to tolerate and what are the side effects of these high amounts of sugars in your gut?
Speaker B:And we've said the limiting factor has always been gastrointestinal distress.
Speaker B:The more sugar you pump into your stomach, the more you're gonna have fluid in your intestines, which is gonna lead to things like cramping, nausea, things like that.
Speaker B:If you cannot absorb 120 grams per hour, which a lot of people can, that sugar just sits there and causes problems.
Speaker B:How well can you train your gut to absorb this stuff?
Speaker B:Not entirely clear to me.
Speaker B:And none of these papers really went into their protocols.
Speaker B:None of these papers talked about whether or not their athletes suffered distress.
Speaker B:I also wanna point out most of these papers were in lower intensity, ultramarathon types of things.
Speaker C:That was gonna be my next question, because ultra marathoners are unbelievable, but they're also keeping their heart rate and their effort pretty low.
Speaker C:And what happens when you apply this to 70.3, where you're running at higher heart rate?
Speaker C:It's more intense.
Speaker C:We don't know because the studies.
Speaker B:It's a huge question, and you're right on the money, Juliet, because this has been the big issue we've talked about.
Speaker B:One of the main determinants of absorbing this stuff is the ability to get blood flow to your intestines to allow to be able to bring the sugars in and circulate it and get it to where it needs to be.
Speaker B:And if you're not able to absorb it and if it's not being picked up by the blood, second, you increase your intensity of muscular work work.
Speaker B:You divert blood flow away from the gut to your muscles.
Speaker B:And if you're decreasing splanchnic blood flow, splanchnic being the blood flow that's going to your intestines, your liver, your pancreas, all of those digestive organs, then you limit your ability to absorb.
Speaker B:And we've talked about this before, we've said, look, if you're taking this 90 grams per hour, the second you start to feel sloshing or any kind of nausea or cramping, you have to back off your effort.
Speaker B:Because backing off the effort you're putting out allows for that redistribution of blood flow back to your splanchnic.
Speaker B:Circulation to allow for improved absorption.
Speaker B:And then once you absorb and those symptoms go away, you can then go back to your improved effort to allow for your heart rate to increase and bring the blood to the muscles and things like that.
Speaker B:Doing an ultra, you're generally working at a lower level of effort and therefore not needing as much blood flow to the muscles so that your splank neck circulation can be maintained.
Speaker B:So yeah, it's a very important insight that you have and a very important thing that we have to mention.
Speaker B:But all the same really good research here that's showing that higher amounts of sugar, very important.
Speaker B:Second paper, carbohydrate intake during exercise and performance.
Speaker B:This is by our friend, I'm not gonna mention, I'm not gonna say his name, but it's Jukendrup.
Speaker B:He's a very famous sort of sports physiologist from the Netherlands.
Speaker B:Does a lot of studies.
Speaker B:You see he's got a very popular Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, whatever.
Speaker B:And he's always posting these very entertaining graphics that show the results of some of his research and other research that he thinks is important.
Speaker B:This is him and he talks about how endurance performance decline during prolonged exercise has been linked to glycogen depletion and low blood glucose levels.
Speaker B:And so he did a review paper looking at how carbohydrate consumption during exercise can influence endurance performance.
Speaker B:This was not an actual experiment, but rather just a review of the literature.
Speaker B:And he showed yet again that if we can prevent glycogen depletion, we allow for improved fuel availability.
Speaker B:If we can prevent hypoglycemia, again, better availability of these molecules for cells to be able to generate the energy and generate the ability to do what we want to do.
Speaker B:So just a really good overview of the need to provide continuous amounts of sugar so that our cells are able to do what they do.
Speaker B:We want to make use of again the glucose and fructose transporters and just keep pushing the higher amounts of sugar as much as possible.
Speaker B:A third article, effects of 120 grams per hour.
Speaker B:So again, this ultra high level of carbohydrate intake during a mountain marathon on exercise induced muscle damage in elite runners.
Speaker B:So this gets to the idea of whether or not taking in ultra high carbs can improve durability, allow for our muscles to recover faster after such a big event.
Speaker B:And lo and behold, they found at least markers not this is one of these things, I think we've talked about this before, so it's a disease oriented outcome.
Speaker B:Did these markers of cell damage go down.
Speaker B:They didn't actually have any significant metrics or measures of oh, their markers went up or down and so too did their performance.
Speaker B:They didn't have performance measures, they just had markers.
Speaker B:But the markers they have are things like creatinine kinase or, sorry, creatine kinase, which is released from cells when they're injured.
Speaker B:And L, D, H, also released from cells, lactate dehydrogenase released from cells when they're injured.
Speaker B:And when these 30 participants who were randomized to either a standard carbohydrate intake or a high carbohydrate intake of 120 grams per hour, when they took 120 grams per hour, they had much lower levels of these markers of cell damage.
Speaker B:And this was taken extrapolated to say, hey, look, look.
Speaker B:Reduced metabolic strain, preserved muscle integrity, lower internal exercise load, likely better muscle integrity and better recovery.
Speaker B:Again, little bit of a.
Speaker B:We're looking at the markers and we're making an ex.
Speaker B:Extrapolation to results, but still interesting.
Speaker B:And then the last article that Sarah brought to my attention was another one of these low carb ones, just as a contrast.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker B:So we talked three articles about ultra high carb and then we have one.
Speaker B:One low carbohydrate, high fat diet adaptation and endurance exercise performance.
Speaker B:Really very compelling.
Speaker B:Basically, low carbohydrate diet significantly increased fat oxidation, however, showed that exercise economy worsened oxygen cost during exercise, increased high intensity performance was significantly impaired compared to those athletes who were taking in carbohydrates.
Speaker C:And this is under what number of.
Speaker B:Grams per hour this was in the low.
Speaker B:So under 60.
Speaker C:Under 60.
Speaker B:Okay, so this is like ketogenic low carb endurance athletes doing high intensity endurance efforts, just not.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Did they metabolize fats?
Speaker B:They did.
Speaker B:But were they able to perform at a high level?
Speaker B:They were not.
Speaker B:In sum, the real take home message from all of this that I think is interesting and I think we need to anchor on is the concept of fuel for the work required.
Speaker B:And I think I really like that because we've talked a lot about, oh, low carb, high carb, ultra high carb.
Speaker B:At the end of the day, your engine needs to do a certain amount of work.
Speaker B:You need to provide the amount of fuel for the engine to be able to do that work.
Speaker B:And all of us are going to be able to fuel at a certain rate.
Speaker B:Certainly when we train, we could try to train our bodies to fuel a certain way.
Speaker B:And I would not go to a race and go from whatever you're able to do in training and just jump to 120 because I think you're going to have trouble.
Speaker B:But I know for me, for example, what I've taken away from this is when I'm on the bike, I'm taking in 400 calories per hour, which is 100 grams per hour.
Speaker B:And I do well with that.
Speaker B:I have managed well with that.
Speaker B:That actually I'm probably between ninety and a hundred and I have done well with that.
Speaker B:But once I get to the run, I have not taken in as much on the run.
Speaker B:I tend to do probably like a 200 an hour.
Speaker B:And I'm looking at this and I'm like, you know what, I need to bump that up because I'm going to try at my race this coming weekend.
Speaker B:I'm going to bump that up.
Speaker B:I'm going to, I'm going to go to 300 an hour because, because it's not that hard.
Speaker B:You go through an aid station, you grab a gel, you just.
Speaker B:So I'm really taking away from this that I think I need to do that.
Speaker C:Did you get any sense from the articles that there was a minimum number of hours?
Speaker C:If you're going out for 90 minutes, don't worry about it.
Speaker C:If it's two and a half, don't worry about it.
Speaker C:Three hours, we start to hit the bubble.
Speaker C:Did you get a sense from these articles that when they were testing their, their candidates through this, their subjects, that everyone was going out and doing a certain duration?
Speaker B:These were all long term events, right?
Speaker B:So they were all ultras, they all started fueling pretty much from the get go.
Speaker B:We know physiologically that we have glycogen to support us for an hour.
Speaker B:But I think that this idea, we have this sort of thought that if you're doing training for an hour or less, you don't need to fuel.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:If you're doing training for over an hour, you need to start fueling.
Speaker B:But I'm wondering if we need to be a little bit more aggressive though because if we wait for an hour and we've depleted our glycogen, I don't know, 50 to 60%, is that really a good idea?
Speaker B:Maybe we need to start a little earlier.
Speaker B:Now there's no question.
Speaker B:I think if you're doing a one and a half hour to two hour training session, you probably don't need to worry about it.
Speaker B:But if you're going out on a four or five hour ride, maybe you shouldn't wait till an hour, has a lot before you start fueling.
Speaker B:Maybe you should start fueling Right away, because you want to prevent that glycogen depletion because you need that glycogen for other points in the ride.
Speaker B:And I think that's what I'm taking away from this tooth.
Speaker B:Answer things.
Speaker B:Number one, I am gonna try to improve my fueling during the run.
Speaker B:And number two, I'm gonna start fueling earlier on my really long sessions.
Speaker B:That's what I.
Speaker B:That's what I'm taking away from this.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And it is interesting.
Speaker C:I know exactly what I preach to my athletes.
Speaker C:And when I first started coaching a decade ago, it was, look, at least 200, 250 calories per hour.
Speaker C:But of course, now we're saying is, no, actually it's more like, we gotta get to you.
Speaker C:We gotta start you at about 300 or just under 300 on the bike and then work up from there.
Speaker C:So it's a different conversation with athletes, particularly people new to being athletes.
Speaker B:Altogether, 480 calories an hour is a lot.
Speaker B:I'm trying to imagine increasing what I'm taking in by another gel, essentially.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:But I'm on the bike, I take about 360.
Speaker B:I'd have to go up by another 120 to get to that.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's not a small amount.
Speaker B:And I just know the issue for me is not so much on the bike where I probably could, but I know that getting off the bike and then starting to run, I wouldn't want to have any of that.
Speaker B:That still in my gut.
Speaker B:And that would be pushing it.
Speaker B:So I don't know that everybody needs to go away from this podcast thinking, oh, my gosh, I need to get to 120.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:I just think we have to be careful because these papers are all ultras, low effort, where it might be easier to get yourself to 1:20.
Speaker B:And I think for us doing 70.3, even Ironman, 120 per hour might be difficult for most age group athletes.
Speaker B:I think if you could find yourself getting to the 90 to 100, I think that should be your sweet spot.
Speaker B:And I would be very careful because if you find yourself getting into any kind of gastrointestinal distress, you need to back off on effort, but also you might need to back off on the amount.
Speaker B:And it's gonna take some experimentation.
Speaker C:Well, I was gonna say, and you need to really train.
Speaker C:You need to get on this sort of months before your race.
Speaker C:You can't just.
Speaker B:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:So, hey, I lift 100 grams of carbs in my system every hour.
Speaker C:It's not going to End well.
Speaker B:And I think for me, what I really enjoyed about this is we've now had several questions related to fueling strategies.
Speaker B:To me, this is the most compelling, I think, but it also is the most thought provoking because we can't just take this evidence and be like, oh, this is the answer.
Speaker B:120 Is clearly the answer.
Speaker B:I think we have to take this as 120 looks great, but we need to have context and we need to put all these other sort of things into this.
Speaker B:Am I going to be able to tolerate it?
Speaker B:Am I going to be able to tolerate it at this effort level?
Speaker B:And what are the side effects going to be that are going to prevent me from being able to do this?
Speaker B:And does that really matter?
Speaker B:Because if I'm going to get into trouble above a hundred, then maybe I don't need to shoot for above a hundred because there's always going to be this plus minus of what is is important and in terms of intake and what is important in terms of side effects.
Speaker B:So I'm taking away from this that this is really interesting, but I'm modifying it for my needs, modifying it for what I think is the important takeaways at a 70.3 level, which is that, yeah, 90 is definitely in a good sweet spot.
Speaker B:If I could bump it to a hundred, great.
Speaker B:But I'm not gonna turn myself inside out to do that because probably there may start to be some unintention consequences.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And when those go bad, they get ugly.
Speaker C:So do you have all of your.
Speaker C:You have all of your fuel liquid, right?
Speaker C:You.
Speaker C:You sell in?
Speaker B:I use liquid because for me, I want it to be simple and I want to be able to get both my hydration and my calories at the same time.
Speaker B:Now, there's no question that can sometimes be an issue because like next week, which will be last week, when people hear this, the Victoria race is going to be cool.
Speaker B:The weather's going to be cool, and when the weather's cooler, as everybody knows, it's harder to force yourself to drink because you're not sweating as much and you tend not to be as thirsty.
Speaker B:And so you end up forcing fluid in.
Speaker B:I generally can make it happen anyways, but there's no question, when it's cooler, it is harder to take in calories by fluid alone.
Speaker B:I still prefer it that way because I find chewing and swallowing solids is never something I love.
Speaker B:And I get tired of gels very quickly.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So for me, that's still my thing that I go to.
Speaker B:And I've been able to make work work.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Everybody's gotta figure out what works for them.
Speaker C:Everybody does.
Speaker C:That's right.
Speaker C:As a women of a certain age, you take in too much fluid, you just pee all the time.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker C:And then that adds a whole nother piece of what do you do with that?
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Yeah, no, I mean when it's hot.
Speaker B:When it's hot, it's not as big of an issue because I know that I'm not gonna pee because I, I need the fluid just to maintain a balance.
Speaker B:When it's cold, though.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's definitely something I have to keep in mind.
Speaker B:No question.
Speaker A:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker B:Again, another question for the listeners and we've had some great conversations.
Speaker B:I really, I don't know if you saw Juliet, but a lot of people have been commenting on the HRV episode.
Speaker C:Oh, no surprise.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, a lot of people commenting on their own experiences.
Speaker B:Brian actually answered because we addressed what I thought was his, his approach with hrv.
Speaker B:He corrected what I said, but also confirmed a couple of things I said.
Speaker B:And other people have weighed in with their own thoughts and I really appreciate that.
Speaker B:I love when people engage.
Speaker B:So I want to hear what is your strategy?
Speaker B:How are you fueling?
Speaker B:Will this information change how you fuel?
Speaker B:And we have some pure runners out there.
Speaker B:Layla is a marathoner, a very high performing marathoner.
Speaker B:Layla, how do you fuel in the marathon?
Speaker B:Do you take in, in this kind of high level of calories?
Speaker B:And if not, will you change based on this information?
Speaker B:I really want to hear from people and I think the other people who are in that group will enjoy seeing what other people are doing with their approach.
Speaker B:So please do weigh in.
Speaker B:We definitely want to know and I think that this group, this community can really add to the conversation.
Speaker B:I really enjoy when I see that happen.
Speaker B:That's what we have for you today.
Speaker B:I hope that this has been informative.
Speaker B:I think that for me it was.
Speaker B:So I hope that it has been for you as well.
Speaker B:Julia, thank you so much as always.
Speaker B:And we will be back in another couple weeks with another question for you.
Speaker B:If you have a question about anything related to racing, recovery training could be supplements, it could be gear, it could be all manner of things related to health and wellness and triathlon.
Speaker B:Just let us know.
Speaker B:You can put it into the Facebook group.
Speaker B:If you're not a member, please do answer the three easy questions.
Speaker B:We'll gain you admittance.
Speaker B:I'd love to have you as part of that conversation and we'd love to see your questions and there.
Speaker B:Or you could send me an email tridocloud.com and your question could be featured on a future episode down the road.
Speaker B:Until next time, Juliet, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker B:I look forward to chatting with you again on another question on the next medical mailback.
Speaker C:Thank you and good luck with your first race of the season.
Speaker B:Ah, whenever this comes out, we'll already know.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker C:Let me know.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Okay, bye now.
Speaker A:Bye.
Speaker B:Foreign.
Speaker B:I am really excited to welcome back to the program someone who I have made no secret of my fandom for, and that is fellow Canadian triathlete Tamara Jewett.
Speaker B: port of triathlon since about: Speaker B:She had a pretty bad had injury that was ongoing in her foot forced her to step back from her burgeoning pretty kind of quasi Olympic aspirations for middle distance running.
Speaker B:She switched over to triathlon at that time and she has never really looked back.
Speaker B:This despite the fact that she was quite an accomplished lawyer.
Speaker B:At the same time she was embarking on a career in law but was having a growing success as an age group triathlete.
Speaker B: took a chance and went pro in: Speaker B:She has had phenomenal Successes at the 70.3 distance and over the last two years at the Ironman distance.
Speaker B:Something that I really wanted to talk to her about and why I wanted to have her back as a guest on this program.
Speaker B:She's also very involved with other activities outside of the world of triathlon.
Speaker B:Although somewhat adjacent, she mentors other female athletes formally and informally as a volunteer coach with the University of Toronto Track program program and through ongoing connections with the University of Toronto's track team.
Speaker B:She also has mentorship through programs with students at her former high school and she is involved with various other kinds of environmental programs that she has near and dear to her heart.
Speaker B:So I am really excited to have her here to chat with me.
Speaker B:She joins me from her father in law's home in Ontario.
Speaker B:I am actually on the road as well.
Speaker B:I am in Montreal at my brother's house.
Speaker B:So we are both in Canada.
Speaker B:Very excited, exciting.
Speaker B:And Tamara Jewett, thank you again for joining me on the TRADOC podcast a second time.
Speaker B:I'm always happy to have you here and big fan of your successes and ongoing.
Speaker B:So thanks for being here.
Speaker A:Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker A:It's great to be here.
Speaker B:I would like to first just chat a little bit about last year.
Speaker B:Last year Was I think difficult year.
Speaker B:I think that's okay to say.
Speaker B:I think in retrospect given how well you've started this year.
Speaker B:Would you also agree looking back that last year was.
Speaker B:Was bit challenging?
Speaker A:I think last year had some sort of down toys, but also some big ups.
Speaker A:There was a bit of a mixed year and unfortunately it ended on a bit of a low point when I got quite sick at Kona and had quite a disappointing race there.
Speaker A:So I think highlights last year were starting the Ironman distance and getting a Kona qualification in my first Ironman in Texas and then a really good race with a strong fourth place finish and a very that marathon off the bike in Lake Placid.
Speaker A:But I for the only time ever because I have qualified again this year, did not qualify for 70.3 world because of quirks in my season and the T100 season the year before that and then did have a bit of a rough Kona.
Speaker A:So I don't feel like it was all bad.
Speaker A:It was just a little bit up and down.
Speaker B:Yeah, it wasn't as consistent.
Speaker B:That's really kind of how I think of it too.
Speaker B:You clearly learned in Kona though.
Speaker B:I remember watching your reels that you were posting leading up to and then coming out of the race and that's something I've always admired in you, is that you are very effervescent with your personality.
Speaker B:You're very positive and I think that's great.
Speaker B:I think we need more of that because I think too often we see people who are just.
Speaker B:They're too quick to get down about things in the sport and I love when people can find positives.
Speaker B:What did you take away from that experience in Kona?
Speaker B:And by the way, for somebody who had a bad day in Kona, you still had what I think the fastest run split.
Speaker B:It was pretty impressive.
Speaker A:It wasn't a fast, it was an okay run split.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But just for me it wasn't.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker B:It was hard.
Speaker A:I, I just.
Speaker A:The experience of it was really tough and it was not a bad day, was not as bad as it felt to me but it just wasn't what I was capable of.
Speaker A:And I think it felt really hard because my training buildup had been really good and I got sick the week of the race and it just really impacted me on race day and that felt really disappointing.
Speaker A:And it's just, it's a tough race to get through whether you're feeling a hundred percent or not.
Speaker A:So the emotional experience of getting myself through it, really not feeling great.
Speaker A:From the get go was a hard one.
Speaker A:I think I learned a lot about the course.
Speaker A:It was a strange trip because honestly, everything about the trip felt wonderful except for the race going badly.
Speaker A:I had an amazing home stay there.
Speaker A:That was a really helpful connection.
Speaker A:And I'm probably going to be staying with the same woman again who hosted me there.
Speaker A:She knew so much about the island, was able to show me around, had really loved the course, the race, through its history and so it was a really like beautiful introduction to the community.
Speaker A:I really liked the island, but it is, yeah, it's a really like the course does not look as brutal as it is.
Speaker A:And so I think learning about how those conditions feel and getting a sense for it and getting a sense of how humble you need to be, even just training there.
Speaker A:Interesting and hopefully will help me out this year.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And the environment is really, I think what makes it so challenging.
Speaker B:I know for myself I've done several Ironmans and I never found the Kona course to be particularly challenging in terms of its geography or the amount of elevation or anything.
Speaker B:The marathon is definitely.
Speaker B:It's more rolling than I think a lot of other ones but really it's that heat and that humidity and oh my goodness.
Speaker B:The energy lab for me is as a not a proficient runner, it always ate me up.
Speaker B:Do you have any plans to go there extra early this year to adapt?
Speaker B:What are your thoughts about that?
Speaker A:I'll.
Speaker A:I'll go a little bit early, I think and I need to look again at my flights.
Speaker A:I think I'm there from September 19th.
Speaker A:It's a similar timeline to last time when I was there.
Speaker A:I do think you need to be careful the training there in the heat.
Speaker A:But I did find it helped me with making my heat adaptation feel a bit more natural to do a lot of the heat adaptation there and I do have a really good home state set up.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'll be there a bit early but trying to isolate myself a little bit from the race atmosphere and worry about that until right in, in race.
Speaker B:Week now this year you're off to an amazing start.
Speaker B:Interestingly, you became ill yet again just before your first event and yet smashed it.
Speaker B:Had a phenomenal day in challenge.
Speaker B:Wanaka came back from a bit of a deficit on the bike, but just ran everybody down with a sensational race run.
Speaker B:And then followed that up the next week with Ironman New Zealand.
Speaker B:And really a spectacular day.
Speaker B:Kat Matthews, probably unbeatable most days, but you really did.
Speaker B:I thought you just had a great day out there.
Speaker B:What were your Thoughts for your first two races of the year?
Speaker A:Yeah, I was really happy with how the trip to New Zealand and Australia went.
Speaker A:Cause I did 70.3 Geelong.
Speaker A:That's right, I'm in New Zealand.
Speaker A:I was definitely feeling a little bit sorry for myself and Wanaka, feeling like I had just ended the season with a cold during a race and then getting sick again.
Speaker A:But luckily I was able to turn things around in Wanaka on my run and it was really nice to start the season with a win.
Speaker A:Really great community atmosphere around that race.
Speaker A:There were kids triathlons running the whole week up to it.
Speaker A:Becca Clark, who's a pro who trains in Wanaka, encouraged me to come to the race, was a great host showing me the course and where to train.
Speaker A:So that was really enjoyable.
Speaker A:And I really love, love Topa, where Ironman New Zealand is.
Speaker A:So it just felt really good to be back there and I think not a perfect race, but then it's so hard to put together a perfect Ironman.
Speaker A:So there's definitely a lot more to hopefully keep chipping away at improving.
Speaker A:But I was really happy with the strong performance to start the year and to get that Kona qualification early.
Speaker B:Now, when you look at the real kind of top names in the sport right now, now clearly you're up there with the runners, but as I've talked with Matt Sharp on my sister podcast on Tempo Talks and we're both again, unabashed fans, but we both have said that if Tamara's in striking distance coming off the bike, you gotta watch out.
Speaker B:But so far that's been difficult.
Speaker B:You've got Kat Matthews who's just.
Speaker B:She's unbelievable on the bike, biking very well.
Speaker B:Solvig, as she showed in Texas this past weekend, there are some astonishing bikers out there there.
Speaker B:What is your plan to try and be off the bike within that striking distance?
Speaker B:Because on a good day, you can outrun all those women by.
Speaker B:I. I don't want to put a number out there, but I have something in my mind that I think you can outrun them by.
Speaker B:But how are you going to make sure in Kona that you can be as good a position as possible to.
Speaker A:Run them down is just a mix with continuing to chip away at the training that we are doing on the bike.
Speaker A:And also just my mental game on the bike needs work.
Speaker A:I think that that's been something that I've struggled with up and down.
Speaker A:And when I do have a day where mentally things click on the bike goes so much better for me and that's Partly confidence.
Speaker A:We're mixing in a few things.
Speaker A:Last year was a lot of adapting to just much longer rides than I had ever done in the past.
Speaker A:This year, now that we have some of that adaptation done done, we're putting in some higher power workouts, particularly on the trainer at this time of year.
Speaker A:A workout each week that might only be an hour to 80 minutes long, but has some sort of really hard, high powered intervals in it.
Speaker A:Because we found that I've responded well to that in the past and that it's been very confidence building.
Speaker A:So keeping some of the longer riding, keeping a lot of the longer riding in, but just mixing that back in now that my body is a little bit more adapted to the bigger training hours and able to handle a bit more of that.
Speaker A:I've been working recently on a bit of moto pacing on the bike to get a better sense of holding a consistent pace and just smoothing out my pedal strokes.
Speaker A:So I don't think there's any sort of one thing just continuing to chip away on different things and partly just working on the confidence and trust with Suzanne and the progress that we have made, even though that's not showing up perfectly in races, that it is building there in the background and trying to find ways to tune into it.
Speaker A:But the level of cycling is very strong in the sport right now and there's certainly no way to just guarantee that you'll show up in Kona and be right up there.
Speaker A:All you can do is keep working on it and keep trying.
Speaker A:And obviously there's so many different elements of the Ironman.
Speaker A:We're always building on each element of it, not wanting to drop the other one as well.
Speaker A:So it's a bit of a gradual process, really wanting to bring up the bike but not wanting to lose progress in the swim or the run either.
Speaker A:So it's hard to just have a full bike focus for a period of time and sometimes that can just make the progress a little bit gradual.
Speaker B:I am so fascinated to hear that somebody at your level still talks about the mental pieces as being potentially like an Achilles heel.
Speaker B:I think it's very grounding for us as age groupers who deal with that all the time to recognize that even you, somebody who's at the pinnacle of this sport, can still face those kinds of issues.
Speaker B:So how does it manifest for you and how do you deal with it and train to be more capable mentally when you get into a race so that you have the mental strength to combat whatever it is that's been lacking previously?
Speaker A:Hmm, yeah.
Speaker A:I feel that's a big question.
Speaker A:Different at different times.
Speaker A:I'm trying to think what the essence is.
Speaker A:Pro athletes are just people, too, and I think the mental battles in sport are part of it at every level, for sure.
Speaker A:And the higher level you're at, the more intensity that you're putting in.
Speaker A:I think everyone across age group and pro goes through such similar things.
Speaker A:We're all humans trying to push ourselves really hard for a really long time in an endurance sport.
Speaker A:A heart of it with the bike right now is being able to string together workouts where I build confidence by being able to.
Speaker A:To overcome hurdles in workouts, finding ways to approach rides that are really long, or when the power numbers feel really high, and just getting through those and seeing that I can.
Speaker A:I think there's a lot of confidence building through the training.
Speaker A:I've been thinking a lot of commentary on my bike gets in my head sometimes.
Speaker A:It really is something that I put a lot of pressure on myself, where I do feel like it is a bit of my weak spot right now in putting my race together in the way that I want to.
Speaker A:And when I started triathlon, I was coming from a place of feeling pretty frustrated with my running, and I had a lot of really strong armor of being able to focus and do the sport on my terms.
Speaker A:And that led to some really strong performances right away.
Speaker A:And I'm trying to get into that mindset of, you know, it's defining the balance between.
Speaker A:I do want the bike to go really well, but when I put too much pressure on it or worry too much about how it's unfolding and how that is going to impact the rest of my race and how that looks and whether I feel like I'm disappointing myself or my support team.
Speaker A:I was just trying to find some of the armor around being able to see the progress in my training, bring that into races, and protect myself from worrying about how it's going when I'm in the middle of biking to get the best power out of myself.
Speaker A:I can't be thinking so many things while I'm riding.
Speaker A:I have to just be focused, and it's hard.
Speaker A:I'm on the bike for almost five hours.
Speaker A:It's a long time.
Speaker A:Um, it's a lot of discussing things with Suzanne, reflecting on mental strategies that have worked for me in the past, bringing those into workouts, approaching workouts that are scary to approach, and getting through those and finding the right balance with that.
Speaker A:You want some workouts that are successes and to build the confidence, but then you want Them that are scary and that you are going to fail at first and playing with those things that you're not breaking down your confidence in your training but you're pushing yourself harder and harder.
Speaker B:It's pros, they're just like us.
Speaker B:It really is.
Speaker B:That's like the negative self talk, the laying down of confidence through experience.
Speaker B:These are a lot of things that I tell my athletes all the time and that I know I have done as well.
Speaker B:I have my little positive mantras that I repeat to myself on those long intervals and those long sessions on the bike when you're out on the course.
Speaker B:So yeah, it's really interesting to me that somebody who is as successful as you also has those same kind of internal dialogue.
Speaker B:So that's really refreshing.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:I'm still a human being.
Speaker A:I haven't magically transformed myself into some other kind of entity, unfortunately.
Speaker B:But we're all looking up to you.
Speaker B:So you have now raced three times now or I guess Wanaka probably didn't have it.
Speaker B:But the two races that you did at Topa and then in Geelong Both had the 20 meter draft rule.
Speaker B:So how did that feel?
Speaker B:You're the first person I've really had a chance to ask about this and watching it from the outside is kind of hard to tell.
Speaker B:You know, we're still trying to suss it out as fans.
Speaker B:How did it feel being involved in that?
Speaker B:Did it feel like it's a good thing?
Speaker B:Did it feel like you can't really tell what's it like?
Speaker A:I don't find that it feels very different.
Speaker A:I had raced because I did a season of T100 racing and that has the 20 meter draft rule.
Speaker A:And I didn't notice going back and forth for me, big differences of field between Ironman with a smaller draft distance and the few 100 with the 20 meters.
Speaker A:I feel that having bikes in sight in such a big boost and whether it's 12 meters or 20 meters, obviously they have demonstrated that does make a difference.
Speaker A:But I'm not sure it's as important a difference as that sort of motivation of being able to stick with seeing the person relatively close in front of you.
Speaker A:I feel that as a strong runner it certainly can't hurt for me that competitors need to be spaced out a little bit further on the bike and hopefully that's making some of them work a little harder on the bike and maybe making their legs a little bit more tired for the run.
Speaker A:I've had a lot of Ironman bikes where I spend big parts of the race in no Man's land still.
Speaker A:So I'm very self powered.
Speaker A:I'm more than 20 meters behind a lot of the time regardless.
Speaker A:So it certainly hasn't felt like it's made a big difference in my racing.
Speaker A:I haven't from watching races noticed a huge.
Speaker A:There hasn't been any, any dynamic that's been hugely noticeable to me.
Speaker A:So I don't really feel strongly about it other than making it hurt.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker B:Yeah, we're kind of watching and our supposition has been that for the stronger bikers, the ones who don't swim as well, that this should be something that will help.
Speaker B:But it's hard to say.
Speaker B:It's hard.
Speaker B:We can't really point to any particular one race here yet where it's been a big deal and so it's really hard to tell.
Speaker B:So I guess we'll continue to watch and just wait and see.
Speaker B:I want to talk a little bit about some of your outside interests because I know you have many Last time you and I chatted was at Mont Tremblant, that infamous smoky day where the race was unfortunately canceled.
Speaker B:And I remember seeing your Instagram post almost at the same time you were involved in a tree planting endeavor.
Speaker B:And now most recently I've seen you posting about another environmental.
Speaker B:I'm so sorry, you'll have to educate me because I can't remember what I it was.
Speaker B:All I remember was it was kelp forests and as a very avid scuba diver, someone who has stove the kelp forests on the west coast, it immediately struck a chord.
Speaker B:So please tell me what it is that you've been involved with and what it is you're doing.
Speaker A:Yeah, don't worry, I can talk your ear off.
Speaker B:I'm here for it.
Speaker B:I'm here for it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I moved with my husband to California or partially moved to California for his work over the past year year and I had been aware when I was younger with my family we used to do a lot of scuba diving in the Caribbean and I'd always been aware of being interested in doing kelp forest diving in Monterey Bay, which is about a 90 minute drive from where Chris and I are right now.
Speaker A:I historically have some of the most spectacular kelp forest scuba diving in the world.
Speaker A:And in the interim with the scuba diving life had gotten busy.
Speaker A:University had happened and I have also been and feeling a lot of angst about knowing that condition of coral reef in the ocean is a little bit grim right now.
Speaker A:It felt grim to me at times and I've been a little scared to get back in the water scuba diving, worried that it'll just be sad.
Speaker A:But through being at Kona last year, I was back in the ocean a lot more.
Speaker A:I was really enjoying my swims there and seeing all of the fish and finding that return to the ocean and.
Speaker A:And then when I got back to California after Kona, I felt, you know what, I need to just get myself back scuba diving and do that.
Speaker A:I was looking for some things that were relaxing balance with triathlon and well, I really missed home around Toronto.
Speaker A:Scuba diving in Monterey Bay is something I can't do in Toronto.
Speaker A:So it's finding something really positive in the environment that I was in.
Speaker A:And I became aware through the height of this disaster that has hit the kelp forest, which is.
Speaker A: But since: Speaker A:And that I have found extremely positive.
Speaker A:And so I got over my fear of the filtration ocean being depressing and got engaged with some of these initiatives that are focused on the kelp horse.
Speaker A:One of the things that had happened was there's a keystone predator, a type of starfish called the sunflower sea star, which has exploded.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A: So in about: Speaker A:The absence of the sunflower sea stars meant that populations of purple sea urchins exploded.
Speaker A:And when they're not kept in check by that predator predator, the sea urchins eat all the kelp, destroy giant kelp forests, destroy bull kelp forests, and then basically themselves, they're in a starving state.
Speaker A:The sea otters won't eat them.
Speaker A:They're not good for fishing, or they're just starving, hungry sea urchins eating everything.
Speaker A:So one of the initiatives I've gotten involved with in my race kit this year celebrates.
Speaker A:It has little sunflower sea star on it is a bunch of labs in the Monterey Bay area.
Speaker A:And there's been some work also, so isolating the cause of this wasting disease.
Speaker A:It's been done at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Speaker A:So they're trying to reintroduce the sunflower sea star tree environment in Monterey Bay to kelp.
Speaker A:And there are a whole bunch of other initiatives focused on different aspects of the kelp problem.
Speaker A:So I've been really enjoying scuba diving.
Speaker A:There is still kelp.
Speaker A:You can still dive in the kelp forest.
Speaker A:It's amazing, it's beautiful, it's a wonderful ecosystem.
Speaker A:And then at the same time I've found it really the energy and initiative of people trying to improve their natural world.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah, it's been really positive and I think at a time when so many things have felt pretty negative in politics, just seeing people really trying to make a positive improvement in their community has been really uplifting.
Speaker B:That's a great story.
Speaker B:Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker B:I will tell you, as an avid diver, I have loved my exposure to the kelp forests out there.
Speaker B:I have dove Monterey Bay a couple times and the Channel Islands as well.
Speaker B:And kelp forest forests when I last over there were amazing.
Speaker B:And to think that they are not as robust as they were when I was last there is a little bit sad.
Speaker B:The Caribbean is in not a great state right now.
Speaker B:So I would advise you, if you are going to dive again, head to Asia.
Speaker B:The diving in Asia remains amazing and that's something you can do in your off season next time.
Speaker B:But we will share Tamra's connections.
Speaker B:And what is the organization called that.
Speaker A:You are working with Sunflower Star Lab?
Speaker A:It's wrapped up now.
Speaker A:I was doing a fundraiser with a custom store with Zoot selling some clothing in the same design of my kit.
Speaker A:That's wrapped up for now.
Speaker A:We'll look at whether it's worth reopening it later in the year.
Speaker A:But for now, that's wrapped up at Sunflower Star Lab is a really great initiative.
Speaker A:They have a great website and some documentaries and podcasts about what they're doing.
Speaker A:There's a great documentary for free on YouTube called the Last Forest Project that kind of goes through what's been happening with the kelp forest in California and some of the initiatives that are having success now in regrowing some of those forests and protecting them.
Speaker B:All right, we'll share that in the show notes and we will encourage everybody to check that out.
Speaker B:Well, Tamara, what's on your calendar for the rest of the year?
Speaker B:I know you're going to be obviously in Kona.
Speaker B:Are you going to be trying to get to Nice or is that going to be something you're going to do?
Speaker B:Given all the travel, what does the rest of the year look like for you?
Speaker A:Yeah, so the next big chunk of racing will be Happy Valley in June and then I will be at Trombois the week after Happy Valley.
Speaker A:I'm really happy though, that they've put the pro field back there and I feel really strongly about supporting that race.
Speaker A:So I'll do back to back Happy Valley and then Trumbla and then Ironman, Lake Placid in July and I might do a race in August.
Speaker A:It's a little bit up in the air right now seeing how things are going because I do want to try to do both me and Kona.
Speaker B:Oh, awesome.
Speaker A:So that is the plan right now.
Speaker A:As long as everything is feeling good and strong at that time of year, I'll do both.
Speaker A:Kona is the bigger priority though.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:If you're in Nice, we have to try and meet for a croissant and a cappuccino or something around the race.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Because I'll be in Nice and it would be great to meet up in person again and this time maybe just for a quiet little coffee before the race so I could just chat.
Speaker B:Tara Jewett, I can't thank you enough for spending some time with me again.
Speaker B:It's always a pleasure to chat with you.
Speaker B:I am so happy to see you doing as well as you you are and I am really looking forward to seeing you to have continued success this year.
Speaker B:Please give your mom my best.
Speaker B:As I was telling you before we started recording, I've been having this ongoing one sided dialogue with her through tempo talks and we will look forward to watching the rest of your season and cheering you on from afar.
Speaker B:Tamara Jewett is a Ironman professional.
Speaker B:She races on 70.3, she's from Toronto, she's a lawyer by training and one day maybe she might get back to that.
Speaker B:And for now she has her Kona slot all tied up.
Speaker B:But as you heard, she's got her fingers in a lot of different pies and all of it is good and happy.
Speaker B:So thank you again, Tamara.
Speaker B:Enjoy the party.
Speaker B:I guess you're there for your father in law's birthday party, so enjoy that this weekend and we will be watching you this season.
Speaker B:Thanks again for being on the Tri Dog podcast.
Speaker A:Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker B:I wanna broadcast everything in stereo.
Speaker D:Hi, I'm Sam Sankoff and I'm the proud editor of the Tridock Podcast.
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