エピソード

  • Motor Doping: Where Do We Draw the Line?

    Motor Doping: Where Do We Draw the Line?
    2026/10/18
    Would you call it cheating if I installed a tiny electric motor in my bike that produced 5W of free power? Of course you would. But would you call it cheating if I raced with a $12,000 super TT bike that saved me 10W of power? Hmmm.Memberships can be had at www.patreon.com/thelonelytriathleteTRANSCRIPTSo, there's been a story in the triathlon world recently that I find really fascinating.And it's not fascinating because I think it's funny, or because I enjoy watching somebody get caught cheating.Actually, quite the opposite.It's fascinating because it raises a much bigger question about what we're actually trying to accomplish when we race triathlon.The story involves an age-group triathlete who had some remarkably fast bike splits, which eventually resulted in anonymous whistleblower complaints and allegations of motor doping.And I want to be careful here, because this whole thing apparently became a bit of a nightmare, and I don't think it's my place to declare somebody guilty based on what I've read.But the story got me thinking about motor doping.And then it got me thinking about technology.And then it got me thinking about what the heck we're actually doing in this sport.Because here's the thing.We all understand why motor doping is cheating.If I put a little electric motor on my bike and use that motor to propel me down the road, I'm no longer relying entirely on my own physical ability.That's pretty obvious.But here's where I start to get philosophical about it.What exactly is the objective of triathlon?Is it to go the distance as quickly as possible?Or is it to go the distance as quickly as you are capable of going using the power of your own body?Those sound like almost the same thing.But I don't think they are.Because if the objective is simply to cover 40 kilometres on a bicycle as fast as possible, then why would we have any rules about equipment?Let's just remove all the restrictions.Put a motor on the bike.Put a giant fairing around the rider.Give everybody an aerodynamic shell.Give them whatever technology is available.And let's see who can get from point A to point B the fastest.That would be a competition.But it wouldn't really be the sport of triathlon anymore.Because triathlon isn't supposed to be a competition between machines.It's supposed to be a competition between people.And that got me thinking about something that we don't question very often.Why do we allow technology to improve our performance at all?Now, I love technology.I'm a triathlete.I have a power meter.I have an aero bike.I have aero wheels.I have a wetsuit.I have very expensive goggles.I use training software.I have GPS.I have all kinds of technology that didn't exist when I first started doing triathlons.And obviously, I don't think all of that is cheating.But where is the line?And why is that line where it is?Take the bicycle itself.A modern triathlon bike is vastly more technologically advanced than the bicycles we were riding 30 years ago.It's more aerodynamic.It's lighter.It's stiffer.The wheels are more aerodynamic.The helmet is more aerodynamic.The clothing is more aerodynamic.The position we're riding in is more aerodynamic.All of those things make us faster.And we accept that.In fact, we celebrate it.We spend thousands of dollars trying to save a few watts.And I'm one of those people.I love this stuff.But here's the uncomfortable question:At what point does technology stop helping the athlete and start becoming the athlete?Because there is a continuum here.At one end, you've got something like a better pair of running shoes.Nobody would argue that wearing a good pair of running shoes means you're not actually running.At the other end, you've got an electric motor.Nobody would argue that the motor is your athletic ability.But somewhere between those two extremes is a whole lot of grey area.Super shoes.Aero helmets.Deep-section wheels.Electronic shifting.Aero frames.Power meters.Carbon-plated shoes.Wetsuits.Training software.Altitude tents.Cooling systems.Nutrition technology.Recovery technology.And on and on.And I'm not saying any of those things are bad.I'm just asking the question:Why do we allow them?And I think part of the answer is that technology has always been part of sport.Human beings have always tried to make better equipment.We made better running shoes.We made better bicycles.We made better swimsuits.We made better skis.We made better boats.And there's something really interesting about technological innovation.It makes the sport faster.It makes it more exciting.It makes people want to buy things.And, let's be honest, there's an entire industry built around convincing triathletes that the next piece of equipment is going to make them faster.And sometimes it does.But there's another consequence.Money.Because the more expensive technology we introduce into the sport, the more the playing field can become separated by who can afford the best equipment.Now, I know we're not talking about ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    16 分
  • Vacation Training, Finding the Middle Ground

    Vacation Training, Finding the Middle Ground
    2026/10/11
    Do you train on vacation? Should you train on vacation? I have some thoughts.Share your thoughts at www.patreon.com/thelonelytriathleteTRANSCRIPTSo, it's vacation time.And that got me thinking about something that I've actually changed my mind about over the years: training while you're on vacation.For most of my triathlon life, I didn't.And my reasoning was pretty simple.I'm on vacation.I'm not training.I'm taking a break from the structure, the schedule, the alarm clocks, the workouts, the recovery protocols, all of it.And I actually think there's a lot of value in that.Because when we talk about recovery, we tend to think about physical recovery. You take some time off, your muscles recover, your body gets a break.But there's also mental recovery.And I think that's just as important.If you're training six days a week, and every workout has a purpose, and you're constantly thinking about what you're supposed to be doing tomorrow, and whether you hit today's numbers, and whether you got enough sleep, and whether you ate enough protein...Sometimes it's really nice to just stop.You're on vacation.You don't have to do anything.And that's the way I used to approach it.But lately I've been finding that a little harder to justify.And the reason is five watts.Five watts.I've spent the last six weeks working to increase my FTP by about five watts.And now I'm about to go away for ten days.And if I do absolutely nothing for those ten days, my training software predicts that I'm going to lose roughly five watts of FTP.About one and a half percent.And I'm thinking...Wait a minute.It took me six weeks to gain those five watts.And I'm going to give them back in ten days?That doesn't seem fair.Now, intellectually, I know that fitness doesn't work quite that simply.And I also did a little bit of reading about what happens when you take a short break from training.And it turns out that if you've put in some good, hard training before the vacation, you can actually maintain a surprising amount of fitness over a relatively short period of time.In fact, with some appropriately hard workouts leading into the vacation, I may be able to preserve most, or maybe even all, of that FTP.Which is good news.But then I started thinking...What if I did a little bit of exercise while I was away?Not training.Exercise.And that distinction has become really important to me.Because I don't want to take my training plan on vacation.I don't want to wake up in Mexico and think, "Okay, what's my workout today?"I don't want to be looking at power numbers or heart-rate zones or trying to hit intervals.I don't want to turn my vacation into a training camp.But I also don't think there's anything wrong with getting up in the morning and moving my body for 30 or 40 minutes.And that's essentially what I've decided to do.I'm not taking my bike.I'm not going to use an indoor gym.For one thing, I don't really want to spend my vacation inside a gym. And it's cold and flu season, and I'm just not particularly interested in putting myself into an indoor environment where a whole bunch of people are breathing heavily around me.But I can run.And I can swim.So my thought is, maybe one morning I'll get up early, before it gets too hot, and I'll go for a 30- or 45-minute run.And the next day, I'll go swimming for 30 or 40 minutes.Then maybe run.Then swim.Run.Swim.And that's it.There's no particular workout.There's no prescribed intensity.There's no TrainingPeaks workout waiting for me.There's no TrainerRoad workout.There's no "I have to get this done."I'm just going to exercise.And I really like that idea.Because the swimming in particular doesn't even really feel like I'm giving something up.I'm going to be in Mexico.I'm going to be in the ocean.I'm probably going to spend hours in the water.So why not spend 30 minutes of those hours actually swimming?I'm not taking 30 minutes away from my vacation to go to the pool and do 2,000 metres because my training plan says I have to.I'm already in the water.I'm just moving through it.And running is a little different because I probably wouldn't otherwise get up and go for a run on vacation.But even there, I think there's something enjoyable about getting outside early in the morning, before the heat, and seeing where you are on foot.And here's where I think I've found the middle ground.I'm not really trying to improve my fitness while I'm on vacation.I don't expect these workouts to make me fitter.They're not going to meaningfully increase my FTP.They're not going to suddenly make me a faster runner.They're not going to transform my swimming.But combined with the hard training I've done before the vacation, I think they can help me maintain some of what I've built.And that's a nice side benefit.But I don't think that should be the primary reason for doing them.The primary reason is simply that exercise is good for us.And I think that's something we sometimes forget when we're talking about training.We tend to divide...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    14 分
  • Why Aren't You Doing a 70.3?

    Why Aren't You Doing a 70.3?
    2026/10/05
    Lately I've observed a tremendous number of people entering a 70.3 as their first triathlon. Back in the day, people hardly ever started at that distance. It usually went something like sprint --> standard --> half --> ironman. So, what changed? I've got some ideas.Check the podcast out at www.patreon.com/thelonelytriathleteTRANSCRIPTThere’s something I’ve been noticing lately.I spend a fair amount of time looking at the triathlon subreddit, r/triathlon, and over the past few years I’ve noticed something that I find kind of fascinating.There are so many people doing a 70.3.And not just doing a 70.3.Doing a 70.3 as their first triathlon.And every time I see one of these posts, I find myself thinking…Why?I mean, seriously.A 70.3 is a long-distance endurance event.For a reasonably good age-group triathlete, maybe you’re looking at five hours.For a lot of people, six hours.Six and a half hours.Seven hours.Maybe more.And I started thinking about that in relation to running.Because six or seven hours is a really long time to be doing anything athletic.For most recreational athletes, that's considerably longer than they would take to run a marathon.And yet somebody who has never done a triathlon will sometimes say:“I've signed up for a 70.3.”And everybody says, “Congratulations!”And then they start talking about wetsuits and nutrition and training plans.And I think…How did this become normal?Because I don't remember it being this way.I got into triathlon in the 1990s.And back then, at least as I remember it, the progression was pretty straightforward.There was sprint distance.There was what we called standard distance, which became Olympic distance.And then there was the Ironman.And somewhere in between there was the Half Ironman.And I did one of those myself when I was working my way toward doing a full Ironman.But it wasn't really a thing in the way 70.3 is a thing today.And this is where I had to go back and check my memory, because I wasn't completely sure.And it turns out my memory is basically right.There absolutely were half-Ironman-distance races in the 1990s.There were some very well-known ones.Wildflower had a Half Ironman.Vineman had one.There were others.And I even remembered something called the Tin Man.And this is where I thought, “Wait a minute. Did they actually try to call the half distance the Tin Man?”Well…Sort of.There were races called Tin Man, and some of them were at roughly the half-Ironman distance.But Tin Man wasn't actually the universal name for the distance.It was just a name used by particular races.So, yes, I remembered something real.But no, there wasn't this giant global thing called the Tin Man series.And that's the important distinction.Because the half-Ironman distance existed.What didn't really exist was the product that we now know as the 70.3.And that changed in 2005.That's when Ironman launched the Ironman 70.3 brand.And I think that was a pretty important moment in the history of triathlon.Because they didn't invent the distance.They branded it.They standardized it.They created a global series around it.And then, in 2006, there was a 70.3 World Championship.And suddenly the half-Ironman wasn't just…“Well, this is a good race to do on the way to a full Ironman.”It became a destination.You could be a 70.3 athlete.You could qualify for a 70.3 World Championship.There were 70.3 races all over the world.And Ironman got very, very good at marketing them.And I think that's where this gets really interesting.Because I wonder if the success of 70.3 has actually changed what people think triathlon is.If you came into the sport in the 1990s, like I did, you might have thought about triathlon as something like:Sprint.Then Olympic.Maybe a Half Ironman.Maybe eventually an Ironman.There was a progression.Today, I think a lot of people enter the sport with the Ironman brand already in their heads.They see Ironman.They see 70.3.They see the World Championship.They see people racing in these spectacular locations.They see the professional athletes.They see the finish-line videos.They see the “You Are an Ironman” stuff.And if you're a new athlete, you can very quickly come to the conclusion that this is what triathlon is.You don't necessarily think:“I'll start with a sprint.”You think:“I'm going to do a 70.3.”And I think social media has probably accelerated that enormously.Because what's more impressive on Instagram?“I completed my first sprint triathlon.”Or:“I COMPLETED MY FIRST 70.3!”You know exactly which one gets the reaction.And I don't mean that critically.I understand it.There's something incredibly appealing about setting a huge goal.And I'm certainly not going to criticize somebody for doing it.But I do think it's interesting that we've arrived at a point where doing a six- or seven-hour endurance event can be somebody's introduction to triathlon.And there's another thing I've been thinking about.Television.Because I wonder ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    16 分
  • [PREVIEW] Why Aren't You Doing a 70.3?

    [PREVIEW] Why Aren't You Doing a 70.3?
    2026/10/05
    Lately I've observed a tremendous number of people entering a 70.3 as their first triathlon. Back in the day, people hardly ever started at that distance. It usually went something like sprint --> standard --> half --> ironman. So, what changed? I've got some ideas.TRANSCRIPTThere’s something I’ve been noticing lately.I spend a fair amount of time looking at the triathlon subreddit, r/triathlon, and over the past few years I’ve noticed something that I find kind of fascinating.There are so many people doing a 70.3.And not just doing a 70.3.Doing a 70.3 as their first triathlon.And every time I see one of these posts, I find myself thinking…Why?I mean, seriously.A 70.3 is a long-distance endurance event.For a reasonably good age-group triathlete, maybe you’re looking at five hours.For a lot of people, six hours.Six and a half hours.Seven hours.Maybe more.And I started thinking about that in relation to running.Because six or seven hours is a really long time to be doing anything athletic.For most recreational athletes, that's considerably longer than they would take to run a marathon.And yet somebody who has never done a triathlon will sometimes say:“I've signed up for a 70.3.”And everybody says, “Congratulations!”And then they start talking about wetsuits and nutrition and training plans.And I think…How did this become normal?Because I don't remember it being this way.I got into triathlon in the 1990s.And back then, at least as I remember it, the progression was pretty straightforward.There was sprint distance.There was what we called standard distance, which became Olympic distance.And then there was the Ironman.And somewhere in between there was the Half Ironman.And I did one of those myself when I was working my way toward doing a full Ironman.But it wasn't really a thing in the way 70.3 is a thing today.And this is where I had to go back and check my memory, because I wasn't completely sure.And it turns out my memory is basically right.There absolutely were half-Ironman-distance races in the 1990s.There were some very well-known ones.Wildflower had a Half Ironman.Vineman had one.There were others.And I even remembered something called the Tin Man.And this is where I thought, “Wait a minute. Did they actually try to call the half distance the Tin Man?”Well…Sort of.There were races called Tin Man, and some of them were at roughly the half-Ironman distance.But Tin Man wasn't actually the universal name for the distance.It was just a name used by particular races.So, yes, I remembered something real.But no, there wasn't this giant global thing called the Tin Man series.And that's the important distinction.Because the half-Ironman distance existed.What didn't really exist was the product that we now know as the 70.3.And that changed in 2005.That's when Ironman launched the Ironman 70.3 brand.And I think that was a pretty important moment in the history of triathlon.Because they didn't invent the distance.They branded it.They standardized it.They created a global series around it.And then, in 2006, there was a 70.3 World Championship.And suddenly the half-Ironman wasn't just…“Well, this is a good race to do on the way to a full Ironman.”It became a destination.You could be a 70.3 athlete.You could qualify for a 70.3 World Championship.There were 70.3 races all over the world.And Ironman got very, very good at marketing them.And I think that's where this gets really interesting.Because I wonder if the success of 70.3 has actually changed what people think triathlon is.If you came into the sport in the 1990s, like I did, you might have thought about triathlon as something like:Sprint.Then Olympic.Maybe a Half Ironman.Maybe eventually an Ironman.There was a progression.Today, I think a lot of people enter the sport with the Ironman brand already in their heads.They see Ironman.They see 70.3.They see the World Championship.They see people racing in these spectacular locations.They see the professional athletes.They see the finish-line videos.They see the “You Are an Ironman” stuff.And if you're a new athlete, you can very quickly come to the conclusion that this is what triathlon is.You don't necessarily think:“I'll start with a sprint.”You think:“I'm going to do a 70.3.”And I think social media has probably accelerated that enormously.Because what's more impressive on Instagram?“I completed my first sprint triathlon.”Or:“I COMPLETED MY FIRST 70.3!”You know exactly which one gets the reaction.And I don't mean that critically.I understand it.There's something incredibly appealing about setting a huge goal.And I'm certainly not going to criticize somebody for doing it.But I do think it's interesting that we've arrived at a point where doing a six- or seven-hour endurance event can be somebody's introduction to triathlon.And there's another thing I've been thinking about.Television.Because I wonder how much the growth of 70.3 has been helped by the fact that ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    5 分
  • Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit

    Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit
    2026/09/28

    Too much fiber, noisy weekends, high cholesterol and more on this week's episode!

    Come chat with us at www.patreon.com/thelonelytriathlete
    続きを読む 一部表示
    17 分
  • [PREVIEW] Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit

    [PREVIEW] Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit
    2026/09/28

    Too much fiber, noisy weekends, high cholesterol and more on this week's episode!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    5 分
  • Triathlon as a Lifestyle

    Triathlon as a Lifestyle
    2026/09/21
    Triathlon works best, long-term, as a lifestyle. Easier said than done?Join up at www.patreon.com/thelonelytriathlonTRANSCRIPTThe Lonely Triathlete — Triathlon as a LifestyleI've been thinking a lot this week about the idea of triathlon as a lifestyle.And specifically, I'm thinking about the training side of triathlon.Because when somebody is new to the sport, I think one of the things that can be really interesting—and really beneficial—is that, over time, triathlon can become more than just something you do.It can actually become part of your lifestyle.And I started thinking about what that really means.Because we use the word "lifestyle" all the time, but what actually makes something a lifestyle?Well, I think one of the big things is that it's habitual.It's something you do repeatedly. It's something that eventually becomes almost automatic.I mean, think about eating breakfast. Or eating lunch. You don't wake up every morning and have a big internal debate about whether you're going to eat today.It's just part of your life.And I think there's something really interesting about what happens when training starts to move in that direction.When you're new to triathlon, you probably have to think about everything.When am I going to swim?When am I going to ride?When am I going to run?What workout am I going to do?What do I need to eat?What do I need to bring?Do I have clean cycling clothes?Is my bike ready?There's all this friction around the activity.But if you stick with it long enough, some of that starts to disappear.You know what Tuesday is.You know that Thursday is a run day.You know that Sunday morning is probably going to involve a bike.You start preparing your gear without really thinking about it.You start arranging your life around the things that are important to you.And eventually, you're not really asking yourself, "Am I going to train today?"You're asking yourself, "How am I going to make today's training work?"And I think that's a pretty significant shift.So what creates that shift?I think the first thing is consistency.And I don't mean perfection.That's an important distinction.Consistency doesn't mean you never miss a workout.It doesn't mean you execute every training week exactly as prescribed.It doesn't mean you never get sick, or injured, or have a busy week at work, or have something happen in your family.Consistency means that you keep coming back.You train.You miss a workout.You get back to training.You have a great week.You have a terrible week.You keep going.And eventually, those repeated actions start to become a pattern.And that pattern starts to become a habit.And the habit starts to become part of your life.I think patience is another big piece of this.Because triathlon is really good at teaching you that you don't get everything you want immediately.You can have a great training week and not see any improvement.You can work really hard for three months and discover that your FTP went up by 10 watts.And you might think, "That's it?"But then you look back two years later and realize that those 10-watt improvements, those little improvements in your running, those little improvements in your swimming, all accumulated into something pretty significant.That's the nature of endurance sport.You're accumulating.And I think that's one of the beautiful things about it.There's also resilience.Because if you're going to make triathlon part of your life, you're going to have setbacks.You are going to miss workouts.You're going to have bad races.You're going to get sick.You're probably going to get injured at some point.You're going to have periods where life gets in the way.And one of the skills you develop is simply learning how to pick yourself up and start again.And that's a pretty useful skill outside of triathlon, too.Because life doesn't really care what your training plan says.Sometimes life happens.And the question becomes, "Okay. What do I do now?"Not, "How do I make up every workout I missed?"Not, "How do I punish myself for falling behind?"Just, "Okay. What's the next thing I can reasonably do?"And I think that's another characteristic of something that's sustainable.It's flexible.It can bend without breaking.And that brings me to one of the dangers for somebody who's new to the sport.Because I think it's very easy to confuse enthusiasm with sustainability.You discover triathlon and you think, "This is amazing."And suddenly you're looking at training plans and YouTube videos and gear and nutrition and power meters and heart-rate zones and all of these things.And before you know it, you're trying to do everything.And you're training five or six days a week.And you've bought a bunch of equipment.And you're trying to optimize every workout.And you're exhausted.And you've been doing it for six weeks.And then you wonder why you can't maintain it.So I think one of the most important questions for a new triathlete isn't:"How much can I do?"It's:"What can I do consistently?"And...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • [PREVIEW] Triathlon as a Lifestyle

    [PREVIEW] Triathlon as a Lifestyle
    2026/09/21
    Triathlon works best, long-term, as a lifestyle. Easier said than done?TRANSCRIPTThe Lonely Triathlete — Triathlon as a LifestyleI've been thinking a lot this week about the idea of triathlon as a lifestyle.And specifically, I'm thinking about the training side of triathlon.Because when somebody is new to the sport, I think one of the things that can be really interesting—and really beneficial—is that, over time, triathlon can become more than just something you do.It can actually become part of your lifestyle.And I started thinking about what that really means.Because we use the word "lifestyle" all the time, but what actually makes something a lifestyle?Well, I think one of the big things is that it's habitual.It's something you do repeatedly. It's something that eventually becomes almost automatic.I mean, think about eating breakfast. Or eating lunch. You don't wake up every morning and have a big internal debate about whether you're going to eat today.It's just part of your life.And I think there's something really interesting about what happens when training starts to move in that direction.When you're new to triathlon, you probably have to think about everything.When am I going to swim?When am I going to ride?When am I going to run?What workout am I going to do?What do I need to eat?What do I need to bring?Do I have clean cycling clothes?Is my bike ready?There's all this friction around the activity.But if you stick with it long enough, some of that starts to disappear.You know what Tuesday is.You know that Thursday is a run day.You know that Sunday morning is probably going to involve a bike.You start preparing your gear without really thinking about it.You start arranging your life around the things that are important to you.And eventually, you're not really asking yourself, "Am I going to train today?"You're asking yourself, "How am I going to make today's training work?"And I think that's a pretty significant shift.So what creates that shift?I think the first thing is consistency.And I don't mean perfection.That's an important distinction.Consistency doesn't mean you never miss a workout.It doesn't mean you execute every training week exactly as prescribed.It doesn't mean you never get sick, or injured, or have a busy week at work, or have something happen in your family.Consistency means that you keep coming back.You train.You miss a workout.You get back to training.You have a great week.You have a terrible week.You keep going.And eventually, those repeated actions start to become a pattern.And that pattern starts to become a habit.And the habit starts to become part of your life.I think patience is another big piece of this.Because triathlon is really good at teaching you that you don't get everything you want immediately.You can have a great training week and not see any improvement.You can work really hard for three months and discover that your FTP went up by 10 watts.And you might think, "That's it?"But then you look back two years later and realize that those 10-watt improvements, those little improvements in your running, those little improvements in your swimming, all accumulated into something pretty significant.That's the nature of endurance sport.You're accumulating.And I think that's one of the beautiful things about it.There's also resilience.Because if you're going to make triathlon part of your life, you're going to have setbacks.You are going to miss workouts.You're going to have bad races.You're going to get sick.You're probably going to get injured at some point.You're going to have periods where life gets in the way.And one of the skills you develop is simply learning how to pick yourself up and start again.And that's a pretty useful skill outside of triathlon, too.Because life doesn't really care what your training plan says.Sometimes life happens.And the question becomes, "Okay. What do I do now?"Not, "How do I make up every workout I missed?"Not, "How do I punish myself for falling behind?"Just, "Okay. What's the next thing I can reasonably do?"And I think that's another characteristic of something that's sustainable.It's flexible.It can bend without breaking.And that brings me to one of the dangers for somebody who's new to the sport.Because I think it's very easy to confuse enthusiasm with sustainability.You discover triathlon and you think, "This is amazing."And suddenly you're looking at training plans and YouTube videos and gear and nutrition and power meters and heart-rate zones and all of these things.And before you know it, you're trying to do everything.And you're training five or six days a week.And you've bought a bunch of equipment.And you're trying to optimize every workout.And you're exhausted.And you've been doing it for six weeks.And then you wonder why you can't maintain it.So I think one of the most important questions for a new triathlete isn't:"How much can I do?"It's:"What can I do consistently?"And maybe even more importantly:"What can I ...
    続きを読む 一部表示
    5 分