Mastering the 70.3: Fitness Standards and Preparation

In this episode of the Precise Multisport Podcast, hosts Aubrey Hayes and Joshua Gordon discuss the essential fitness standards and preparation strategies required to complete a 70.3 triathlon. They explore the difference between competing and completing, the importance of proper training, and the minimum experience benchmarks needed to ensure readiness for race day. The conversation emphasizes the importance of consistency in training, understanding cutoff times, and recognizing red flags that indicate a lack of preparedness. The hosts offer actionable insights and guidelines to help aspiring triathletes achieve their goals and successfully navigate the challenges of endurance racing.

Takeaways

1) You don't have to be a beast to race a 70.3.

2) Respect the distance; it takes time to prepare.

3) Consistency in training is crucial for success.

4) If in doubt, simulate race conditions during training.

5) Practice transitions to avoid cramping and confusion on race day.

6) Swimming is the least impactful but requires preparation.

7) You should be able to ride the entire distance before race day.

8) Running 10 miles or more in training is vital for developing endurance.

9) Cutoff times are essential to understand for race day.

10) Training load guidelines suggest 6-8 hours a week for several months.

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Intro Music: Tonight At Eight by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Outro Music: Climb by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

Transcript

Aubrey Hayes (00:01)

Welcome to the Precise Multisport Podcasts, where we dive deep into the world of endurance sports, training strategies, and the mindset that fuels peak performance. I'm Aubrey Hayes, USAT Level 1 Coach, age group athlete, and co-founder of Precise Multisport.

Joshua (00:19)

I'm Joshua Gordon, coach, age group athlete, and also co-founder of Precise Multisport.

So today we're gonna talk about an interesting topic that I see asked a lot online if you're like perusing forums and stuff. The topic is gonna be, you what are the fitness standards that are required for 70.3? And so a lot of this ⁓ interest comes from the fact that people don't know if they're ready. You know, there's tons of questions out there saying, how do I know I can complete this? How do I know how fast I'm gonna do this? Like, am I gonna be able to survive this?

You know and then there's a lot of people out there that want to just like go couch to 70.3 also

And so, I mean, I think that's not a good idea. We'll talk a little bit about that. So yeah, in today's episode, we're gonna just kinda talk about the, you know, why this is a question that keeps coming up, and then our suggestions for, you know, if you want to evaluate your ability, like how you can think about this process and, you know, get a good idea that you, you know, have confidence going into race day, essentially.

Aubrey Hayes (01:26)

Yeah, kind of give in everybody a litmus test, right? Like here's where you can check and see, ⁓ are you up to the challenge or, know, some people may be okay with just meeting the minimum standard, but so that kind of jumps us into like can compete versus complete. ⁓ and so like a lot of people, when you hear them sign up for 70.3 is it's ⁓ a bucket list item or even a full distance arm, man. But today we're talking about 70.3.

Joshua (01:53)

Mm-hmm.

Aubrey Hayes (01:55)

bucket list item, I just want to finish. And I always tell athletes that I sign on, they're like, I just want to finish. And I'm like, okay, but I need you to be very open with me about your goal. Because there's always a little hidden goal in there or like I call like goal creep. As they start training and getting better and they follow a plan. They start to get this idea of what they want their time to be. And then they'll race and be upset at the end of it. And I always ask him, I thought you're

Joshua (02:09)

Mm-hmm.

Aubrey Hayes (02:24)

goal was to just finish. Well, I really wanted to get this time and so there's a lot that comes with it. So understanding are you there to compete or complete. So how do you see those two aspects playing together?

Joshua (02:28)

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean most people will just say they want to just complete it, but ⁓ you know if it's their very first event, which this kind of topic would probably be geared towards this discussion, ⁓ then I would say yeah completing it is probably the primary goal and ⁓ beyond that I think that people overestimate their ability ⁓

You know, they think that they can complete it, but they're part of them doesn't actually believe it, which is why they asked this question, right? They sign up for it thinking initially it's like this honeymoon phase. I'm sure we've all gone through this where you like sign up for something and you're like, that sounds awesome. I can do it. And then you guys like time goes on, you know, like it becomes more and more questioned. And there's a lot of uncertainty with a triathlon because it's such a complex sport with the

Aubrey Hayes (03:11)

Mm-hmm.

Right, right.

Joshua (03:37)

the

three different sports and the transition, nutrition, and all of those things, right? And so I think people use this just finish as like a scape to say like, oh, okay, I can miss some training. There's a lot of underlying things that go into people saying that. And so like you were saying, I think it comes down to like...

Aubrey Hayes (03:51)

Mm.

Yeah.

Joshua (03:58)

People need to be honest with themselves. Like why are they saying they just want to finish? Is it because they okay that would make them happy or they're kind of using just finishing as like a scapegoat for underperformance?

Aubrey Hayes (04:10)

Yeah, like giving them that out to like, well, I'm just doing it to finish. So I don't really need to do these hard runs because I'm not trying to be a fast runner. I just want to run. And I feel like they're missing out on a lot. ⁓ And obviously they're they're underestimating it, right? They're underestimating the distance ⁓ as well as like you're saying is overestimating what what they can do. Because this is 70.3 is not I think a lot of people

People pick the 70.3 because it's not the full distance Ironman, but it's still Ironman brand race, right? And so, well, I can do the half. That doesn't seem as hard. But ⁓ it's a hard race, especially going from couch to 70.3 or beginning on it. So ⁓ that kind of leads into it becoming a trap, right? So as you mentioned there, so what kind of gave you confidence before your first 70.3?

Joshua (04:45)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Aubrey Hayes (05:09)

Did you build up to it? Did you have races? I know for me, I just kind of, did like a sprint one year and then the next year, COVID hit and I was going to race at 70.3 and COVID hit and I was just training and training and the year passes and I was like, I'm not doing a 7.3 anymore. I'm just going full distance Ironman at this point. Cause I had put in like seven, eight months of training. was like, screw it. Jumping right to it. I felt like I had the fitness and

Joshua (05:13)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (05:39)

but I increased that training. So the confidence was there because I did a 70.3 essentially at home without the swim. Like did the bike, did the run. And I was like, okay, I think I have it. I'm moving straight to the full distance. So what are some of those things that gave you confidence moving into your first 70.3?

Joshua (05:47)

Mm.

Yeah, I had never done a triathlon before. I signed up for 70.3, so this was me, I guess, in a sense. Like, I didn't really know much about triathlon when I signed up for it. I started riding on Zwift, like, a long time ago, and then,

Aubrey Hayes (06:07)

Yeah.

Joshua (06:18)

There was some ad for like Lionel Sanders and I was like, who's this Lionel Sanders guy? And I like looked it up and he's like, oh, he's like Iron Man winner. And I was like, all right, I can try to do that. And that was like how I signed up for my first event. And then basically like I just did a significant, I've always been significantly invested in training. And so I was like, I always liked training even before I used to like powerlifting and bodybuilding stuff. So, you know, I got a good plan. I executed the plan and I, mean, I was swimming.

Aubrey Hayes (06:30)

Yeah.

Joshua (06:48)

Lot and you know, it was gonna be my first open water swim and we'll talk about that, but I got canceled because of You know like it's happening all the time now. It's like something like what's going on recently And so yeah, I just like trained a ton like I was really big into cycling and running like I am now and so the swimming I was just gonna survive and ⁓ Like yeah, I mean It was just good training and I believe in my training

Aubrey Hayes (06:59)

Yeah.

Joshua (07:16)

And that's how I kind of decided that I could do it.

Aubrey Hayes (07:19)

Okay. Yeah, I don't think anybody really gave me a like kind of like what we're doing today. I didn't really find anything or have anything out there said like, hey, here's kind of some ⁓ measurements that you can look at to see if you are ready. And I know for sure I questioned it 100 times before the Ironman like, man, I feel like I did it. I got a coach I did follow the training plan like I'm ready, right. ⁓ And it wouldn't be a race if you

Joshua (07:37)

Definitely.

Aubrey Hayes (07:48)

you knew 100 % right that would there wouldn't be a challenge there so yeah there's gonna be some questioning but that's that's all part of the beast and that's why we go for it so well we talked a lot about the under preparation so ⁓ you know what are what are some problems with under preparation especially for first timers like not being there before not feeling that event

Joshua (07:50)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I mean...

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people have some history with running, you know, like from childhood, P.E. Everyone has kind of jogged around. We all think most people started with like running a 5K and then they've all learned how to ride a bike, you know, and like what I'm basically getting to here is people do not swim. They skip swimming. They don't open water swim. They don't realize that the swim is cold, chaotic. You know, people have panic attacks, even professionals. And so I think

Aubrey Hayes (08:21)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Joshua (08:45)

a lot of the under preparation I've seen is coming from well actually the bike and the swim like because those things take a lot of time swimming like with driving to the pool and learning and then biking too with like all the time you have to ride outside and you know there's mechanical issues and blah blah blah right so I think a lot of under preparation comes from just the time commitment associated with some of the activities related to triathlon

Aubrey Hayes (08:58)

Mm-hmm.

Joshua (09:15)

And the issue is that the race gets like progressively, I mean, you have to get through the swim. Otherwise you're not going to be able to bike or run. And like I've coached some people and they like refuse to swim or they swim like once out of every three times I asked them to swim and they never open water swim. And I'm always like, I don't know if this person is going to make it, you know, to the finish line of the swim. I think that they can make it to the finish line of the race if they get through the swim. Right. But like I, I've.

Aubrey Hayes (09:36)

Yeah.

Joshua (09:45)

always had lot of, I'm scared for some of the people that I coach because they just will not do what I say even if I tell them 10 times to swim. And so that's, yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (09:54)

Yeah, especially because I mean, that's a danger to their

health for sure is like, if you're not getting out and swimming, then you're getting into open water for the first time. Swimming a distance, you probably have maybe touched a couple times because you're a lack of swimming. You put yourself and others in a very dangerous position out there in open water. Like I could only imagine like the first time you get you get in the water because there's some kind of panic when you've never done it before.

Joshua (10:14)

Mm.

Aubrey Hayes (10:22)

or you don't know how to warm up for the swim. There's a little bit of panic and how do you deal with that if you've never been there? And so you're panicking, someone bumps into you, you you touch something in the water. Now all these things are like freaking you out and you're yeah. And your heart rate starts to jack up. And next thing you know, you DNF to swim. And yeah, there's just there's different ways. I was talking to an athlete earlier today about this and she got out and did some open water swimming today.

Joshua (10:25)

Mm-hmm.

Swallowing water, yeah. Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (10:52)

She had her boyfriend ride along in a kayak down the river with her. But she mentioned that she's like the first 400 yards. It felt like I was, you know, free, you know, having ⁓ a panic attack. Everything felt tight and close, but it's her first time open water swimming. So she got to go out and now she knows and talk to her about doing some warmups, taking a little slower in the beginning and then getting into your rhythm.

⁓ And then siding like I don't know what you call it, but like alligator eyes So like just the water right above, know, pull your head out just a little bit to site And then one of the things that I think helps people with open water swimming You may not be able to get out open water, but at the pool if you get a couple people together Get three people in one lane trying to swim down that lane together. So you're like bumping in each other and in a comfortable area so

Joshua (11:25)

Mm.

Definitely.

Aubrey Hayes (11:44)

There's a lot of things you can do to prep for that open water. ⁓ But it takes getting in the pool. So if you're not getting in the pool, it ain't happening. So.

Joshua (11:48)

Yeah.

Yeah.

So yeah, do you we've talked about this before I think I don't know if it's on this podcast, but

Do we think that there should be some sort of like proficiency, minimum proficiency requirement for swimming? Like, you should have to prove that you can swim an Olympic distance, you know, before you can like sign up. Cause like we have USA triathlon, right? And I know they don't want to like gate keep triathlon, but like, you know, there should be something, I mean, sometimes I think there should be some sort of like prerequisite, you know, for

Aubrey Hayes (12:14)

Hmm.

Right.

Joshua (12:31)

events. ⁓

Aubrey Hayes (12:33)

Yeah,

almost almost like doing a pool time trial or just to show that you could do the consistent or even like an open water.

I don't know, say like an open water test prior to the race, but that would can, I don't know. That'd be tough, that'd be like logistically, that'd be pretty tough to implement.

Joshua (12:51)

Yeah.

I mean sure but I mean you just get people to license it, know, like you can have certain YMCA's whatever right like or You can video or something. There's ways that they could do it in this day and age You know what I'm saying? Like I don't know if I was running a race and I was the organizer I would really like to know that everyone can swim who's gonna attempt to swim

Aubrey Hayes (13:05)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Joshua (13:19)

But

I mean, it's not the topic of this conversation, but it's just like, you should probably think in your mind and we'll talk about what that is later. I think in this episode, I think we can move on to like how, ⁓

Aubrey Hayes (13:28)

Yeah, we got it.

Joshua (13:32)

We can talk about quickly here about like for the 70.3 for those people don't know There's actually like cutoffs like intermediate cutoffs in the race itself So like starting at the end from the beginning to the end like you have to finish From the time you start in eight and a half hours So it's eight and half hours for 70.3 and it's 17 hours for a full iron man, right? So that's why there's always those videos Like people finishing like at one o'clock in the morning because they've been out there all day Right, but beyond that total time like you can't just like take three hours to swim

Right, so starting from the time you go into the water, and this kind of actually depends on the race itself. Like some of the races like start at the clock kind of at different times, but the general rule is it's like 70 minutes for a 70.3 swim, and that equates to something like three minutes per 100 meters or something like that, I think. A little more than that, because it's like what, 1,900 meters times three minutes, yeah. So, or maybe it's a little bit slower than that, 310, 320.

But it's a, then once you get out of the water, you have like another up to five and a half hours to finish the bike. And at some races they'll like cut you off. Like if you don't make it halfway, right? They'll like cut you off part of the way. And so you basically have to like continue to maintain a certain minimal pace and like you can calculate what that pace is for the swim in the bike and the run, but it's actually, yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (14:53)

So that's five and a half hours over

all time, right? From like the start of the swim to to finishing the bike. Okay.

Joshua (14:59)

Yeah.

Yeah. And there could be intermediate cutoffs like at 28 miles or something like that. If you're not at 28 miles by three and a half hours or something like that, they could cut you off there and like put you in the sag wagon. That happens, man. Like people, especially if it's like super duper cold, like people like take like 45 minutes in transition one. Have you heard of that? Like they're like warming tents and like.

Aubrey Hayes (15:10)

Gotcha.

Yeah.

Yeah, man.

Joshua (15:28)

But yeah, so the cutoffs are very important for the minimum fitness requirement, obviously, because if you can't maintain a certain pace on the bike, the swim in the bike and the run, for those distances, you're not gonna meet the cutoff. Now, I would say 95 % of the people could easily beat the cutoff, right? I mean, in terms of their baseline fitness. Do you agree with that?

Aubrey Hayes (15:29)

I, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, 100 % because those are pretty... the cutoffs are pretty easy to hit, I think. But it's whether you can hit them comfortably. If you feel like crap because you're out there for eight and a half hours, that seems measurable. But yeah, yeah, I think so. I think that's about right.

Joshua (16:15)

Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (16:17)

But I mean, what's important is and kind of one of the things highlighted is that getting off the bike was enough time to actually finish the run. So, and that means being good in T1 because you're in T2, you already mentioned like people in there for 45 minutes. Sometimes I feel like people bring like the entire house in the kitchen sink with them to transition to they're like changing, they're like hanging out. You don't have time.

Joshua (16:26)

Mm-hmm.

Aubrey Hayes (16:46)

in transition to do all that. I've never understood that. is more when it comes to transitions for sure.

Joshua (16:54)

Yeah. ⁓ yeah, mean, cut chasing the cutoff is something that people do. There's out there to enjoy themselves, which is complete. I think it's a little bit different than the minute minimum fitness standard. Like if you know that you can comfortably bike like 18 miles an hour.

Aubrey Hayes (17:05)

Yeah.

Joshua (17:13)

you're gonna have plenty of time, right? And so people can just relax if they're not gonna just race, they just wanna enjoy themselves. So, but if you're gonna be like pushing the limit, like you should not be diddle-dallying in transition for sure. Cause then you could be less fit. Yeah, exactly.

Aubrey Hayes (17:19)

Yeah.

Yeah, that's where you want to make up sometime. Yeah.

So we've talked through the compete versus complete and then under preparation and then knowing those cutoffs. So with all of that, we jump into those minimum experience benchmarks that you talk about and what people need to have to get into racing. So this is our opinion. This is what we feel is kind of those minimum benchmarks. You could take it or leave it.

It's up to you. We're not here to say that you can't compete if you don't do these things. But this is just something that we've come up with. So completing at least one short course triathlon. I think you and I both kind of. Yeah, yeah. But I will say that I did my own in practice. And that's one way you can do it. It doesn't always have to be a sanctioned triathlon, right? Like show up to the pool, do a swim.

Joshua (18:15)

Do as we say, not as we do.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (18:28)

Have your bike with you, jump on your bike, go ride, run. Hey, I did a sprint today. I think most people could probably do a standalone sprint, you know.

Joshua (18:33)

Exactly.

Even if it's a soft transition, know, like you take a swim and then you get on the spin bike in the gym and then run on the treadmill. Like I think 99 % of the people have access to that kind of indoor triathlon. And heck, that's like, what is that like Super League? They do that. That's like a real triathlon.

Aubrey Hayes (18:51)

Yeah, essentially.

Yeah.

Joshua (18:52)

So

like I think anybody can't make an excuse like I can't do it. No you can't. Like we've all we all did that even if it wasn't like an official event and so we definitely want to have those transitions and those exercising different modalities different sports because that's a really big stressor on the body if you've never done it before.

Aubrey Hayes (19:11)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah going from swimming to standing up for the first time like really quick sometimes that throws people for a loop and then like trying to Get into the bike out of the swim like that it it takes takes the body a little bit and then obviously coming from like riding to running it's all about the hip angle and Are your legs ready? for that change in Change from biking to running

Joshua (19:19)

Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (19:39)

So you really have to practice that. And I think we'll cover that in here in a little bit as well. so the other one, we already mentioned this, at least one open water swim before race day. Race day should not be the first time you jump in open water.

Joshua (19:48)

Mm-hmm.

No, you can do it. I mean, worst case, there's a practice swim at like most races, you know, like you can go the day before and I'm not saying to do that, but if you've never swam in open water, go the day before to the practice swim because you're going to feel what the water is going to be like. You're going to get a sense of what the sighting is around that event location. Right. So at minimum the day before you should go to the practice swim. ⁓

Aubrey Hayes (20:13)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Joshua (20:20)

And then, yeah, if you can practice in open water at least a few times, or if you do a shorter race, right? That would be, you know, give you, think, because this is about kind of,

making people less anxious about this whole thing or answering this question. And I used to like every time I went to the open water swim for like years, from doing this like six years, and I'd always get like anxiety. Like I'm driving to the open water swim, you know, and like I was doing it solo and all this stuff. But like, I realized one day when I was driving there, I was like,

Aubrey Hayes (20:46)

Yeah.

Joshua (20:51)

You know, this pre-race nerves that I feel like before the start line, it's actually just open water swimming nerves. Because like, as soon as I like got over that open water swimming, because I'll go like ride my bike to the reservoir with myself and swim, you know, this huge lake by myself. I don't get nerves anymore really, unless it's like really bad weather. And then in the race, I don't get nerves anymore because like I'm not afraid of swimming. Like it's like you, that's part of like the chest tightness and the panic is like people just don't believe in their ability.

And so yeah, we could have a whole other video or a podcast on open water swimming at some other time. Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (21:19)

Mm-hmm.

100%.

Yeah.

Joshua (21:26)

So

let me jump in here then and say this one's in my wheelhouse more. Like I think the next one is like the ability to exercise continuously for like four to five hours. Now this can be done in like a variety of ways. It doesn't have to be a triathlon. Like I would recommend I have most of the people I coach like do like a four to five hour bike ride, like even when training for like a 70.3. Because like on the bike you have your nutrition, you can control the effort with hills, you know, the gearing and I mean you're gonna

Aubrey Hayes (21:39)

Mm-hmm.

Joshua (21:56)

be

out there if you're a beginner more than likely than five hours right and so you want to have the ability to know without straining your body in terms like injury risk and the recovery cost so if you can go ride for four or five hours that's gonna show you hey I'm really my body you know it's aerobic system like it's still gonna work you're gonna have that confidence and you're gonna have that ability to be like all right I can keep pushing through

Aubrey Hayes (22:01)

Yeah. Yeah.

Joshua (22:21)

you know, I know how to recover from this. know how to fuel, et cetera, right? And so I think you should be able to exercise continuously for at least four hours prior to the race day to have confidence that you're going to be able to complete 70.3 distance.

Aubrey Hayes (22:36)

Yeah, no, that's a good one. Would you recommend, say someone, I think you should have four hour bike rides anyways, but like if you wanted to mix it up, they could do like go swim for an hour and then jump on the bike for three, three hours just to kind of mix it up. But continuous work, no matter what it is, do not go run for, do not run four to five hours. You will wreck yourself. Yeah.

Joshua (22:50)

Yeah.

Exactly.

No, but I mean...

Didn't put that on here, but like a lot of

times people ask this question I think have a blog kind of on this is like if I run a marathon Can I do a 70.3 and like you're pretty much like checking this box? Like automatically and so to me if someone says hey, I did a marathon in four hours Can I do a 70.3 and like I'm gonna think yes You can easily do it with a little bit of training because they've already shown to me they can exercise for probably four to five hours continuously Right don't do that when you're training for 70.3, but if you have done it if you come from marathon run

Aubrey Hayes (23:23)

Mm-hmm.

Joshua (23:32)

I would say that you can do a 70.3 with a little bit of focus swimming and bike training for sure

Aubrey Hayes (23:38)

Yeah, and hot take. I didn't believe this till I actually raced a marathon and you used to always say this is Honestly, I think if you're like legitimately racing a marathon, it might be a little bit harder than a 70.3 Just because the ground and pound man. It's so ⁓ Yeah, I so all right and then ⁓ this one, ⁓ able to run 45 to 60 minutes off the bike and training without breaking down that is important because

Joshua (23:50)

⁓ it is. Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (24:08)

To me, you're gonna do this on your long brick days anyways. this kind of hits two birds with one stone. Am I fueling my bike ride properly so that I can actually hop off the bike and run 45 to 60 minutes so you can work on your fueling during that piece as well? And then just, you have the endurance, do you have the muscular endurance to actually continue to run off the bike? And that's a big.

Joshua (24:32)

Mm-hmm.

Aubrey Hayes (24:35)

Big thing, and honestly, if you can do that, that's a confidence builder right there. Like if you're hopping off the bike and running 60 minutes and you're done and you're like, man, that went bad. You can almost knock off your four to five hour workout again with this one and have a lot of confidence leading into the race.

Joshua (24:39)

But totally.

Yeah, you don't need to do that more than like once or twice, right? We're not recommending you do like long runs off the bike like every week or but like if you need to try it one time to know what it's going to feel like because like a lot of plans have you run like 15 to 20 minutes off the bike, which is good, like most of the time, but like, you know, there's nothing like, you know, getting beyond those 20 minutes of that vehicle. Like, wow, this is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. So like I am really of the philosophy that like you need to

Aubrey Hayes (24:56)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Joshua (25:22)

in training a lot. You don't need to like execute your full race in training, but like you need to train some things, you know, practice. It's like a muscle memory just to know what it feels like for mental and physical confidence, right? Like I'm not out there saying like, you need to do everything in training, like ride the exact watts and run the exact pace. Like, no, that's what the race is for. But like there's some partial experience that we need, right? To have confidence.

Aubrey Hayes (25:35)

here.

Yeah, I would say and with that like

You say at least once so like you could tell like if you've only done the 20-minute bricks off 25-minute bricks off and That's all you ever did which is what I schedule most my athletes and then as we get closer in those peak weeks We do that 45 to 60 minute off But if that's all you ever do in the race You're gonna get off the bike and you're gonna hit 20 minutes and your body's gonna go. Holy crap. We've never been here before

Joshua (26:16)

Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (26:16)

and it's

going to freak out a little bit on you. And you'll know. You'll know when it hits and you'll go, man, I wish I would have listened to those guys about running for 60 minutes off the bike. So at least once.

Joshua (26:27)

At least once, yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (26:32)

Alright, what's the next one we got here?

Joshua (26:34)

Yeah, this this is one that I believe but I mean I don't think this is a hard and fast like rule but like if I had to put a number on it to make someone feel confident Like can I do this? I would say you should try to do at least like 100 hours. It's just a nice round number of like total endurance training

at a minimum to feel confident that you'll be able to finish. I mean, that's a significant amount of training for like an event that lasts like five, six, seven hours, right? So, and you're not gonna, you're not gonna do like 20 hours a week. You're probably gonna be doing like seven to 10 hours a week, which means that you're gonna have to be doing this for like 10 to 15 weeks. And so like, if you can just like, cumulate, like you asked yourself, have I done enough? Well, if you've done like a hundred hours of training, you're probably gonna be in really good shape compared to like most people.

Aubrey Hayes (27:06)

yeah.

Joshua (27:25)

there to be honest if it's consistently executed week over week and if you can do that I would say yeah you're gonna knock it out of the park

Aubrey Hayes (27:30)

Yeah.

⁓ Okay, yeah.

Joshua (27:35)

Do you think that's too

low or too high?

Aubrey Hayes (27:39)

I don't know. think I'd have to math it a little more and I'm not good at math in public so I'm not going to do it on here right now. But I say it's a good starting point and that will kind of take us back to the complete versus compete. I would say yeah for complete 100 hours. But if you're looking at a time specific goal you're definitely going to have to put in more than 100 hours. And this comes back to consistency too.

Joshua (27:53)

Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (28:07)

We're talking about people doing their first 70.3, but after you guys get through your first 70.3, don't just stop training. Keep base fitness and then that'll accumulate over time and then you can take on another 10 to 15 week block leading into your next race and you're gonna crush all this because you're gonna be well beyond these numbers. So, okay, yeah, I'll leave it at that, but definitely more for compete, but for complete I'll take 100 hours. Yeah, that works.

So, ⁓ okay. So, do you think using an Olympic Triathlon is a good readiness test?

Joshua (28:48)

Yeah, I do think it's better than not doing it. Like it's mostly, you know, we don't have to harp on this too much, but I think it's about how you feel during it. And like, of course, how long it takes you. Right? Like if you're doing the math and you're like, well, I have to sustain this pace for more than double the distance, right? Because it's more than double the distance to 70.3, right?

Aubrey Hayes (28:54)

Yeah.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Joshua (29:15)

You're going to have problems. So in that sense, it's really good to know where you stand. Right. The other thing I like about the Olympic is that the swim is like considerably longer relatively to the 70.3 right. It's like 1500 meters versus ninth. So if you can get through the Olympic, it means you can get through the swim, which means that you're most likely going to get through the whole thing. So I would say like, yeah, if you can go sign up for like, you know, it's like 120 bucks, 150 bucks. I know it's a lot, but like go sign up for some local Olympic.

Aubrey Hayes (29:25)

Yeah.

Yeah, it's pretty close to your 78.3.

Joshua (29:45)

you know, six to ten weeks out from your 70.3, like if you can do it well, you're gonna be super confident that, yeah, I got this under control. So, I mean, you can just do it yourself, like you said, if you can find some people to do it or lake, you know, like I would recommend it.

Aubrey Hayes (30:04)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think it's good. ⁓ I always try to get people to if they sign on with me like hey, let's get a couple races prior to First just to kind of get see where they're at. Also, it's a really good training day Like if you can get out and do an Olympic maybe in month prior to your 70.3 That's gonna be a really good long training day. ⁓ We can see kind of where we can push you what we need to work on as well as ⁓

Joshua (30:15)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (30:33)

looking at your transitions. Like are you taking forever in transition and why? What do we need to fix? you know, so it's good. I like it. What I don't recommend is, you know, nothing wrong with it because I like racing sprints, but people do like the super sprints and stuff like really short fast. ⁓ For me, I don't. It's just fun to get out and do it. I don't think I get a whole lot out of it. Maybe for beginner athletes that could be kind of that stepping stone doing that sprint, then the Olympic and 70.3 within that same training block.

It'd be good for everybody. So, alright, so let's look at our minimum fitness ⁓ by each discipline. So we'll start with the swim, ⁓ obviously in order swim, bike, What are some of those minimum fitness requirements that you think people should have for 70.3?

Joshua (31:13)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, ⁓ I think swimming, since it's the least impact, like you should probably if you're ⁓

Mostly training in the pool, like you should probably able to swim like 3000 meters in a single session, like at least one time. So a little longer than the distance. And then like when you're in the pool, like you should try to do some intervals, like 400 meters, right? Like four by 400 meters or some longer sets, right? And when you're doing those longer sets, like you should be able to hold at least like two minutes and 30 seconds per a hundred meters, like with pushing off the wall, right? And that gives you like, cause I see people slow down like,

Aubrey Hayes (31:41)

Mm-hmm.

Joshua (32:02)

20 or 30 seconds right like in open water with like the siding and not swimming straight and then the the current chop etc right so give yourself like a 30 second which is a lot of slowdown but like I think it's a safe buffer so like I do think yeah like longer than the distance swim is needed in this in this discipline because like it's no impact and it's gonna you know be like another 20 30 minutes or whatever extra and that's gonna give you that like confidence like okay I did 3,000 I could definitely

and then do 1900. What do you think about that? Yeah, okay.

Aubrey Hayes (32:33)

100 % yeah. Yeah I

like that and uh maintain the pace and honestly I would say doing having that 210 to like maintaining a pace in the pool is good but I would almost want to see them do like a thousand meter um time trial or maybe just do the full distance at least once in the pool. I know there's some

Information out there is like well you don't want to do that because now we're talking about breaking down of ⁓ Form if they get tired I get that but this is more of like hey, can I do it? This is a confidence builder as well. Like hey, I just I just hit 2,000 meters in the pool non-stop ⁓ That that to me is good ⁓ That way, you know, not everybody's gonna be able to hit the open water for 2,000 meters if they don't have a support system ⁓

Joshua (33:13)

Yeah.

Definitely, I agree with that.

Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (33:27)

We talked about a little bit earlier, but the sighting piece, learning to sight. One thing I had a swim coach years ago, he would set ⁓ a broom in a cone at the end of the lane. And every time I went down, he'd move it and I'd have to sight and find it. then so he would make sure that I was able to actually lift my head up, like the alligator eyes I was talking about, and be able to sight where that was. So yeah.

Joshua (33:55)

That's a good strategy.

Aubrey Hayes (33:57)

One thing I don't like, not don't like, one thing that bothers me a little bit about it is with the wetsuits, a lot of people get a little too reliant. They're like, oh, I'm going to have a wetsuit, so I'll be OK. And I think that might be kind of that under preparation we talked about earlier. It's like, I'll have a wetsuit, so I don't have to worry about my legs sinking because it's going to help me. Hey.

Joshua (34:14)

Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (34:26)

Sometimes wetsuits get pulled from the race and then now what so yeah So prep prepping for that Yeah

Joshua (34:30)

that happened to Texas, Yeah. Definitely. Like you,

it's hard to over prepare for swimming. Like you should just be very confident that you can do it. Cause that's gonna reduce significant amount of stress on your race and you're gonna be able to focus on the rest of the race, which is, Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (34:41)

Mm-hmm.

In the board

Sorry, yeah, the more you swim,

like that over distance, the better you're going to feel getting out of the water, which improves your bike. Like you come out like just absolutely smashed because of stress and all the other things and then fight like your bike is going to be shit. So

Joshua (35:00)

Yeah.

Yeah.

For sure.

Aubrey Hayes (35:13)

So that leads us to the bike. What do you think about that? Where are we at on a bike test?

Joshua (35:17)

Yeah,

I think you should be able to ride the distance, the full distance of the race before you compete in the race. ⁓

You don't need to go over it necessarily. Of course, we already said you could ride longer for that, you know, ultra endurance kind of preparation session. But like we said, you don't need to do only biking. That's just one way I would recommend doing it. But like for some people, yeah, that I mean, four hours.

Aubrey Hayes (35:43)

Mm-hmm.

Joshua (35:48)

You should be able to do four hours and over the distance for sure. But I think you should be able to ride at a reasonable pace. Like if the intermediate cutoff is five and a half hours from the start of the race, you should be riding at least 15 miles an hour. I mean, because especially since the 70.3, I get it when people are out there for...

full Ironman like they slow down it's a long day they're stopping to the bathroom and just eat you know whatever but like I think like you should be doing the rides like in three to three and a half hours I mean it's gonna depend on your fitness level right but if you can't just like go out and smash or smash or ride the bike only in the target pace that you want to ride it at like you're not gonna do it in the race right like I don't think you have to go out and do it all the time but like if you can't go out and ride three hour and thirty minutes

without a swim and a run after, that tells me we're gonna have some problems, basically. So I do think like riding at least 56 miles or 90 kilometers and then doing it not on Zwift also. like, you know, drinking your water bottles, like having a flat repair kit, shifting, like looking for cars, you know, like it should be done if possible outside also, at least once.

Aubrey Hayes (36:54)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and you bring up a good thing. It's like a flat repair kit ⁓ If you don't know how to change a flat, there's a lot of bike shops that'll put on courses for it There's also like tri clubs probably in your area that do these like hey beginner triathlete things but learn how to Repair a flat because it's just you out there. You don't get a you're not a pro You're not gonna get a cool moto to follow you around and throw a wheel on for you doesn't happen. So Yeah

Joshua (37:25)

Mm-hmm.

You

Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (37:38)

I agree with you on the biking like and the Not thinking that I'm gonna be faster just because it's race day mentality that it's it's not how it works so get out there practice your pace practice your watts riding at what you think it's going to be you have to get out and feel it because I you were telling me when I was doing my marathon and I kind of had that same mentality like yeah

I'm going to hit this and you're like, well, if you can't do it in practice, you're not going to do it in the race. I was like, yeah, yeah, you're right. So. 100 % man. So that leads us into running. So the last discipline. ⁓

Joshua (38:11)

Yeah. Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (38:21)

running 10 plus miles in training. I agree with that, but I also think that a half marathon isn't that far, and I don't think it puts that much stress on the body. So this one I really think people should be doing over distance at least once or twice leading up to it.

Joshua (38:41)

Mm.

Especially if it's like at an aerobic, easy effort, right? Not at half marathon pace, right? Your half marathon in the Ironman is gonna be already probably 20 to 30 seconds on a good day slower than your open marathon per mile.

Aubrey Hayes (38:47)

Yeah.

Right.

Joshua (38:59)

And then these long run over distance can be two minutes slower than your half marathon pace, right? Like per mile and be a really good stimulus. But these people might not even know they can run a half marathon, right? So, mean, complete beginners to 70.3. So like there's a lot out there that says, don't run, don't go too far because you could injure yourself, right? And I think a lot of people do get injured.

Aubrey Hayes (39:06)

Mm-hmm.

Joshua (39:27)

when training the running portion of triathlon or running in general, right? And so do you think they should be doing over distance to meet the 70.3 like requirement? I mean, it obviously would be better. I agree with that.

Aubrey Hayes (39:44)

Yeah, I just think I could see where you say the 10 plus miles and training, but for me it's like progression, right? So building your plan. If we had to start at a, I'll give you an example. I had a guy, he couldn't run a mile. We started a walk run program and I think 15 weeks later ⁓ he was doing 14, 15 miles, consistent running at an aerobic pace, but it's that progression.

Slow progression, 10 % per week, building into it. Yeah, 100%. I think that, cause you should maybe be hitting that over distance, what, two weeks out? And then now you're tapering. And so yeah, I think that is a good measurement. Maybe not coming straight from the couch, you should have to hit 14 miles. That seems irresponsible, but building into it 100%, man, that's definitely a good one. And then,

Joshua (40:13)

Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Aubrey Hayes (40:41)

Obviously the last little thing on here we're running is understanding how to hydrate and fuel while fatigued what your body needs, right?

Joshua (40:50)

Yeah, most people don't necessarily know how to fuel when they run. It's kind of easier on the bike, but like running it's you have to carry everything and the gels and yeah, it's there's not really talk about that. What? Last week or week before like.

Aubrey Hayes (40:56)

Mm-hmm.

Joshua (41:07)

You need enough fluid, right, as well. And so you need to practice all that. And like a treadmill might be a good way to do that, because it's all like right there, right? Like you can do, you can have everything laid out for you. I used to do, and I was a beginner, I used to do a lot of treadmill, like just to get the hang of everything.

Aubrey Hayes (41:09)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Joshua (41:28)

And don't do it anymore, but like back then it was super valuable to like just know, okay, I can quit right now if I need to quit, right? Just like press the stop or pause button. Like now I'm like, all right, I'm 10 miles from home. I'll make it back somehow. I'll make it back. I'm confident. But back then I was like, dude, I don't know if I could make it another five minutes. So I'm just going to like have a bailout, you know, or just like run like.

Aubrey Hayes (41:37)

Yeah. huh.

Joshua (41:53)

half a mile loops around the park so you can just bail out whenever you're about to crack.

Aubrey Hayes (41:55)

Yeah.

I will say what I do is I found a loop around my neighborhood, so like a one to two mile loop, and I set up a table in my driveway or I use like the bed of my truck and I'll just put like nutrition and stuff. And then that way like every like 20, 30 minutes I just swing by just like it's a water stop on a run and just hammer nutrition, boom. It seems repetitive, but honestly it helped me quite a bit with ⁓

Joshua (42:13)

And that works.

Aubrey Hayes (42:27)

Learning how to fuel how to grab stuff. I start playing a game in my head. How fast can I get this through? It's little things like that. It may seem silly, but man just going through the motion of doing that helps so much because you'd be surprised how many people don't know how to like, you know, take the little cup and Pinch the cup and drink the water right or just be like, we talked about christian bloomfield Just throw the just like shoving water in your face It's what works for you, but you're never going to know until you practice it. So those are one

Joshua (42:49)

Yeah. ⁓

you

Aubrey Hayes (42:57)

That's something that I do that has helped me quite a bit is just create those loops and set up my own ⁓ aid stations essentially. So ⁓ we talked about all of that and we're trying to give some guidelines of or an overview of what we just said. like our training load guidelines. So 68 hours a week, six to eight hours a week for several months ⁓ for like a base build. Long rides, two and a half to three and a half hours.

Joshua (43:13)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Aubrey Hayes (43:25)

talking about doing long runs, so 90 minutes. ⁓ I would say, you know, as they get closer, especially if there's somebody that runs maybe a little slower, when we talk about over distance for like 14 miles, don't go over two and a half hours. Like that should be your cut. Cut off two and a half hours, anything over that, you're like really taxing your CNS and it might take longer to recover and you won't get as much out of it. Two to three brick workouts during the build.

Joshua (43:39)

you

Yeah.

Aubrey Hayes (43:54)

I try to add, that's a good base, but I try to add like two a week for my athletes. just, the consistent, consistent, and then a hundred hours of training before race day. So I think those are all, yeah, those are all ⁓ good guidelines. So if you guys want to write that down and tell us how that works for you, you just let us know. And so now that we have guidelines, what are some, you're asking us like, what are those red flags?

Joshua (44:07)

I agree with all of that.

Aubrey Hayes (44:24)

that show that you're not ready. think?

Joshua (44:27)

Yeah, basically the first one is repetitive, but if you can't swim for like 500 meters without stopping, you know, or like holding onto the wall, standing.

You're going to have a bad time even with the wetsuit and it's putting yourself and others at risk and that goes into the you know, No, if you've never done any open water swimming You're us also big red flag to me like you're if was coaching you I would say there's a high likelihood you're not going to make it through The first part of the race and therefore you're not going to finish ⁓ And then yeah, like I guess I'll just say what the other ones I think are like

Aubrey Hayes (45:08)

Yeah,

hit it.

Joshua (45:09)

If you've never done a ride longer than 30 or 40 miles or even two hours long, you think, I've only done two hours in training, or you've never ridden outside, to me, that screams you're gonna have problems. You're gonna be in pain, your hands are gonna be numb, you're gonna have, I mean, there's so many things that can go wrong. So not having enough riding experience. And then, yeah, if you don't ever practice transitions and doing

Swim

to bike or bike to run kind of work bricks or just transition runs those kind of things like You could cramp up almost immediately I you see it all the time like people just like they run for like 500 yards or 20 meters and then they just like walk for like 21 20 kilometers right after that there's like a hamstring or you know, their stomach their stomach is totally messed up from running after riding right because they messed up the the 411 rules before that we talked about

Aubrey Hayes (45:55)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Joshua (46:09)

Right like so

like if you've never done any of that if you don't practice fueling etc Like I think you should really be doing all those things You can even do a lot of that in like the last two weeks if you absolutely had to if you're listening to this and you're saying Okay, I haven't done any of that do it Do it now Yeah

Aubrey Hayes (46:27)

Yeah. Get it in your plan

and make it happen. ⁓ So some closing thoughts, takeaways. So one of them, you don't have to be a beast. You don't have to go out there and be the next Olympic champion. But you need to have respect for the distance. ⁓ Yeah. 70.3 is, it's not easy. ⁓ It takes work to get there, even though it's half an Ironman.

It is still a essentially like an ultra distance race and it takes yeah, it takes five, six hours, seven hours for some people and that's a long time to be out there. So do yourself justice and respect the distance and train for that distance.

Joshua (47:00)

Definitely is.

Aubrey Hayes (47:17)

Wanna hit the next one?

Joshua (47:18)

Yeah, yeah, so then I think being consistent with your training is like probably the most important thing even if you're not hitting every single session

Correctly or you know if you're doing 80 % of the sessions or more like you're gonna have this rhythm and you're gonna have confidence in your body and Psychologically, you're gonna say okay. I've done all this work That's getting a lot of the day is like 90 % mental right to believe that you're able to do it to push through the pain and the discomfort that's gonna definitely come because it's gonna be like the longest you probably ever exercise in your life

It's going to be some dark moments for a lot of people, think, go through. So you need that mental spark, you know, to say, I've done all this work, I can do it. So consistency is, it goes a long way.

Aubrey Hayes (47:53)

yeah.

Yeah, then lastly if in doubt simulate it So do race rehearsals. We talked about it. You can you can do You can join local races To do race rehearsals or you can set up your own at home Set up transition points at home. So don't just get off the bike Lully gag around and then put your shoes on a run set up that transition spot. How do I come back? How do I set my shoes?

to get them on faster? Do ⁓ I use a hat to carry all my stuff in out of transition? There's a lot of little things that you can do and just simulate it, man. Go out, swim out in open water. If you live near the course, go to the course, run and ride the course, see what it's about. There's a lot you can do to prepare yourself.

Do you want to do a closing anything or do we just want to end it here?

Joshua (49:04)

Yeah, I guess ⁓ I'll do a little closing thing here. So I guess I'll just say like if there's one piece of advice that I would would have is to, you know, just

do the work day in and day out. ⁓ Do find the training. There's a lot of free plans. We can, you know, help you build a plan. We have free plans on our website. And so essentially what I would say if someone's like coming to me, because some people come to me and say, can I do this? Like I've had that question many times since I started triathlon. People know, hey, you're that triathlete guy. like, I asked you to say, what are you doing now? Like, can you show me that you can do this? Right? Like what are the, what is the

that you're doing now and if they show me like okay yeah I'm like an elite marathon runner I trained six days a week I'm like dude you can do this right so the people that are consistent and like know how to execute day in and day out recover fuel and repeat you're gonna be successful so think that's like the number one indicator to me that someone is gonna be able to knock this out of the park

Aubrey Hayes (50:11)

Alright, yeah, and that's a great closing statement, so I'll delete my piece out of there. Alright, great conversation today talking about what it takes to race a 70.3. In closing, all PM coaches are taking new athletes if you're looking for running triathlon and strength training programs. Click the follow button on the podcast or on YouTube. And then you can submit questions next week.

precise multisport at gmail.com or precise multisport.com forward slash contact us. It's also a link at the bottom of the podcast where you can send us a text directly. Thanks guys for joining us today and we look forward to seeing you next week.