That Triathlon Show

How do WorldTour cyclists train across a season, how do you profile a rider and decide what to work on, and what should amateur cyclists and triathletes know about cadence, easy riding and durability? Björn Kafka coaches for the Uno-X Mobility WorldTour team and has also coached athletes to world and Olympic titles and medals in mountain biking, track cycling, and even snowboarding. He is also a co-developer of the A Faster You platform, formerly Aerotune.

Marius Bakken is a physician, a former professional runner and two-time Olympian with a 13:06 personal best for 5000 m, and the person who developed the training approach that later became known as the Norwegian method, since used by Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Andreas Almgren and many others. We cover why he sees the muscles rather than the heart and lungs as the real limiter, how double threshold works, how to find and control your threshold with or without a lactate meter, and how much of it carries over to triathlon.

With the Ironman World Championship in Kona this Saturday, this Research Roundup is a heat and humidity special for triathletes and other endurance athletes, built around four big topics instead of four single studies. How much heat and humidity each slow you down when you separate the two, what the largest reviews say about heat acclimation and whether sauna and hot baths work as well as active methods, how fast heat adaptations arrive and how fast they fade, and which in-race cooling strategies work, while also being practically feasible.

Tomasz (Tomek) Kowalski is a triathlon coach with a great track record of athletes racing Kona, among them age-group world champions and podium finishers. With the IRONMAN World Championship coming up again in Kona we cover everything age-group triathletes need to know to have a successful race there, including when to fly out, training and tapering on the island, heat preparation at home, equipment choices, and pacing, fuelling and hydration on race day.

Mikael Eriksson and Jack Hutchens answer listener questions, starting with a long look at how to fit a marathon into a triathlon year: when to do it, how much running it takes, what happens to the swim and the bike, and how far the long run really should be. Then questions on racing a 70.3 inside a base phase, coming back from overtraining syndrome, and whether you have to dig a hole to get supercompensation. We do listener Q&As monthly, the last Thursday every month.

David Tilbury-Davis has coached world class triathletes since 1995, among them Lionel Sanders, Ashleigh Gentle, Skye Moench, Cody Beals and Matt Hanson. In this episode we cover everything that decides whether an athlete reaches their potential except the training itself: professionalism, how you design your life around the sport, the decisions you make week to week, psychology and mindset, and the coach-athlete relationship.

In today's Research Roundup we bring you four recent studies. How world-class Norwegian endurance coaches programme strength and speed, the factors determining how a runner's physiology holds up over two and a half hours of running, a defence of the critical power model written by the people who built it, and a polarised versus high-intensity trial in cyclists with a result neither of us expected.

Alistair Brownlee is the only triathlete to win two individual Olympic golds, winning at home in London in 2012 and in Rio in 2016. He retired at the end of 2024 after an 18-year career, in which he also won two World Titles, four European Titles and the Commonwealth Games. He also has two second-place finishes from Ironman 70.3 World Championships. This is a conversation about how he actually trained across two decades, in particular when he was at his most dominant and changed the sport: the volume, the intensity, what he would do differently, and lots more.

Listener Q&A, covering nine different questions/topics from building bike power as a runner and a collegiate swimmer moving back into triathlon, through what actually makes us fatigue during a threshold effort, to swimskins, power duration curves and lots more. We do listener Q&As monthly, the last Thursday every month.

Mikael and Jack Hutchens each bring up four things they do in their coaching practice that the research does not support, or does not support in the form they use it. Tapering, torque work, electrolytes, grey zone intervals, heat training, strength training, sprint interval training and psychology. For each one: what the evidence actually says, what the two of them do instead, and the reasoning they would defend it with.

Marc Graveline is an aerodynamics consultant who works with WorldTour cycling teams as well as professional (e.g. Chelsea Sodaro, Lionel Sanders) and amateur triathletes, and road and gravel cyclists. He co-developed the Notio Konect, the first consumer on-bike aero sensor, and now develops his own device, the Gizmo. He also led the testing programme behind IRONMAN's decision to move the professional draft zone from 12 to 20 metres. We cover how to run an aero test you can actually trust, what to test and in what order, tyres and tyre pressure, and what IRONMAN's draft-zone testing actually found.

Daniel Rowland and Mikael are back for another research roundup with four recent studies. What blood biomarkers do and do not tell you about training load in elite triathletes, why two athletes with the same VO2max can have very different thresholds, what actually predicts running injuries in a cohort of 5,200 runners, and whether supersets deliver the same strength gains in a third less gym time.

Mikael and Jack answer listener questions on indoor versus outdoor FTP differences, whether time in zone is all that matters and how to optimise interval intensity, a first 70.3 debrief covering swim breathing problems and bike cramps, and lots more!

Robbie Deckard is a professional middle-distance triathlete and triathlon coach, and the founder of Freaky Fast Aero Accessories. In this episode, Robbie and Mikael dig into the real differences between American and European training methods, using lactate and VLaMax to optimise training and performance, and how age-group triathletes can apply lab-grade thinking to swim, bike and run training without actually going into a lab.

Paul Booth is a performance nutritionist and exercise physiologist who works with elite ultra-endurance athletes and teams, including the Salomon International team, and was the nutritionist behind both the men's and women's UTMB winners in 2025, Tom Evans and Ruth Croft. We cover the science and practice of fuelling: how many carbs you actually need, why the high-carb trend has run ahead of the evidence, and how to get hydration and electrolytes right for triathlon and ultra-endurance racing.

A research roundup episode, where Dr. Gabriele Gallo (of KnowledgeIsWatt) and myself cover four recent research papers and how they might help us train better and improve our understanding of triathlon and endurance performance

Jack Kelly, professional triathlon coach and host of The Triathlon Hour discusses everything about his coaching methods and thoughts on triathlon training and performance.

Kolie Moore of Empirical Cycling returns to That Triathlon Show! In today’s episode Kolie brings lists of his top underrated and overrated factors for cycling performance to the table, and we discuss these. Kolie also tests Mikael on logical reasoning, and has him guess whether each factor is overrated or underrated on Kolie’s list.

In today’s episode Scientific Triathlon coach Mikael Eriksson answers listener questions about time-crunched training and lots more…

Today we discuss how to execute your best possible race day performance. Mikael and Jack provide practical tips that you can apply from sprint distance triathlon to the Ironman. Some of these tips are probably familiar (but bear repeating), others you have likely never heard or thought of before.

If you are focusing on improving your FatMax in 2026, you’re likely wasting time and money. Not only is fat a more expensive substrate to burn than carbohydrate (you get less energy for the same amount of oxygen by oxidising fat), but the Fatmax number you see in your lab report is mostly noise and very little signal. In today’s episode of That Triathlon Show I’ll explain exactly why that is, but I’ll also give you a tool to evaluate any test or measure that you might (or might not) want to be tracking, from Time Trials to VO2max, HRV and various biomarkers like ferritin and testosterone.

Most triathlon training focuses on physiology and skills. Dr. David Spindler argues that the brain is the missing piece, and that you can (and should) train your brain to better process pressure, adapt under stress, and execute under fatigue. This episode will teach you how to do this.

In this episode, coach Daniel Rowland and myself each bring two recent research studies to the table that we have found interesting and potentially useful for athletes and coaches. We discuss the implications and practical takeaways of the findings, how athletes can implement the findings in practice, and the strengths and weaknesses of the different studies. Whether you listen for the love of endurance sports science, or because you want to keep up to date with the cutting edge in triathlon training, this one is for you.

Brenton Ford is a swim coach and the founder of Effortless Swimming, one of the most well-known and well-respected resources of swimming knowledge for triathletes and open water swimmers. Especially for adult-onset swimmers without a swimming background. In today’s interview we start with an in-depth discussion of swim technique, before diving into specifics for open water swimming, training structure, and more. This episode is packed with information, and you’ll have a great chance of finding some advice applicable to your own situation that can help you improve your swimming.

This is the episode for every triathlete with ambitions in sprint and Olympic distance triathlon, from beginners looking to complete to front-of-the-pack athletes looking to compete. Triathlon training has similarities across the board from sprint to Ironman distance, but the specific training obviously differs between distances, and in this episode we break down exactly, when, why and how. Let’s get stuck in!

For many years, the topic of whether a polarized or pyramidal training intensity distribution is more effective for endurance athletes has been hotly debated. Arturo Casado, PhD, is one of the foremost researchers in this area (and former European Champion in the 1500 metres). Today, Arturo dissects what the science really says in 2026: whether there is a winner, and if not, what are the athlete-specific, event-specific, and other variables that impact which training distribution will bring the best results. We also discuss specific training models from Canova to Norwegian from both scientific and practical perspectives, and bring it all together with practical advice relevant for amateur triathletes and runners.

Triathlon is a sport that rewards a big aerobic base, built over multiple years (if not decades) of training. But even though we all know this, it’s often hard in practice to prioritise this kind of long-term aerobic development, and we make tradeoffs that might lead to short-term gains, but might not help us achieve our full potential in the long-term. Coach Carson Christen joins me today to discuss this topic in detail. By the end of this episode you should have a better idea of what you can do today, this month, and this year, to maximise your long-term development as a triathlete.

Today we take on your questions about triathlon training, strength training, Ironman, swimming, cycling, running, and other bits and pieces. We also briefly review our recent race experiences, and what’s next on our schedules. Hosted by Scientific Triathlon coaches Mikael Eriksson and Jack Hutchens.

Innovations like the aerobar, power meter and GPS watches have shaped triathlon and endurance sports in the last decades. But what comes next? What will be the next big innovation to shape triathlon? Dr. David Lipman returns to the podcast to discuss what the next big innovations will be, and which ones might fall flat. We also take a stroll down memory lane to look at past innovations that succeeded and failed, and try to parse what it takes for an innovation to really stick.

We’re tackling a heavily requested topic today: triathlon training for masters athletes. Is it possible to slow down the natural performance decline through better and smarter training and recovery? Might you even be able to reverse time and hit new peaks later in life? Mikael Eriksson and Jack Hutchens discuss best practices for older athletes based on their coaching experience and the scientific literature.

Jacob Tipper is a high-performance cycling and triathlon coach working with athletes such as Ben Healy (Tour de France stage winner and UCI World Championships third place in 2025), Lucy Byram, Dan Bigham and Jonny Brownlee. He is also a team coach or the EF Education-EasyPost WorldTour team. In today’s interview we discuss training for amateur triathletes and we dive deep into Ben Healy’s training and preparation that led to his breakthrough year in 2025.

We dive deep into Ironman training and preparation in today's episode, and discuss how to best get ready for an Ironman whether you're looking to achieve an ambitious time or position goal, or you're looking to complete your first full distance triathlon and simply want to beat the cut-off times.

Sebastian Sitko is a cycling and triathlon coach, and a sports scientist. His active involvement in coaching both amateur and professional athletes, as well in conducting and evaluating research means today’s episode is a perfect opportunity to discuss how to approach the integration of science and practice in cycling, triathlon, and other endurance sports.

Physiological profiling is often the missing link in amateur triathletes’ training programs. Knowing your profile on a scale from very endurance based (slow twitch phenotype) to very explosive (fast twitch phenotype) can help you avoid costly mistakes and break through plateaus in your triathlon training through better individualisation. In this episode, we discuss the ins and outs of this topic, from how to correctly profile an athlete without misinterpretation or overinterpretation, to important training implications for different athlete profiles.

Torque and cadence are common features of cycling training programs, but how should you really train them to get the most out of your training? Peter Leo is a sports scientist and high-performance coach working across cycling (Team Jayco-Alula, Cycling Australia) and triathlon (coach of high-level short-course athletes), and since he’s personally researched this topic, and applied it at the highest level, he’s a perfect guest to answer this question. We also discuss training principles, including debunking some common misconceptions and mistakes made when applying training principles in practice.

Most triathletes are limited not by their physical capacity to train more or harder, but by being time-limited, so we’re constantly looking for ways to make more out of the time we have to train. Nowhere is this challenge greater than when training for Ironman or other full distance triathlon races on a limited time budget. In this episode, coach Natasha Van Der Merwe joins me to discuss how to deal with this challenge in the context of age-group triathlon training.

Most triathletes and runners will suffer from injuries almost every single year (and many will suffer multiple injuries per year). In this episode, world-renowned physical therapist Chris Johnson explains how to break out of this injury cycle, by looking at all of the different variables contributing to injuries. This is an in-depth look at how to balance your running or triathlon training with proper strength training, nutrition, and lifestyle factors, to allow you to train and perform more and better in the long run.

If you want to improve your running performance as a triathlete, these are the tried and true sessions that we rely on as triathlon coaches and athletes.

A great fartlek and progressive threshold session to improve your running. Plus, the components that should be part of an effective run program, even though they’re not necessarily classified as “run sessions”.

We rank our most effective bike sessions in this “Power rankings” episode. If you want to improve your cycling performance, try adding some of these sessions to your program. Whether your training for sprint distance triathlon or Ironman, or even pure cycling events like road or gravel races, there will be several sessions on these lists that can help you take your cycling to the next level.

Learn about the interval session that takes traditional long intervals (e.g. 4 x 5 minutes) and optimises it for more time near VO2max (and by extension, more training adaptations). Also, do Norwegian cyclists do threshold intervals the same way as their triathlon counterparts.

Gordo Byrn is a former investment banker turned professional triathlete at a later stage in life without an endurance sports background. He podiumed at Ironman New Zealand and Ironman Canada, and also became Ultraman World Champion. Today, Gordo is a coach and a prolific writer, with a lot of great thoughts and perspectives on how to improve performance in triathlon and endurance sports, and even in life.

Gordo Byrn, investment banker turned professional triathlete and multiple Ironman podium finisher, discusses how to manage training load and fatigue. The full episode (an almost two-hour long episode!) will be available in the episode "Gordo Byrn on optimising Ironman training, the importance of volume and low intensity training, and practical age-group training" (release date 22nd of January 2026).

We “Power rank” our favourite swim sessions. Some of these might not be favourites in the moment, but they most definitely are when it comes to the results they deliver in terms of improving your triathlon swimming! If you’re looking for some fresh ideas and perspectives to boost your swimming, this one is for you. Expect to find some bread and butter sets that have stood the test of time, but also some sets you had probably neither heard of nor thought of, but that work wonders.

Two swim sets that will elevate your triathlon swimming - one Ironman specific set, and one brutal but amazingly effective VO2max set. These two sets are number 4 on the "Power Rankings" top-five of Jack and Mikael, respectively. The full rankings will be available in the episode "Power Rankings - Our top five sessions to improve your triathlon swimming" (release date 15th of January 2025).

In the final instalment of our Triathlon Base Training Series, Mikael Eriksson and Jack Hutchens discuss how to think about strength training, nutrition and diet in the context of your base training phase. We then finish things off with a listener Q&A.

This clip is an excerpt from the episode "Triathlon Base Training Series 5 - Strength Training, Nutrition & Diet, and Listener Q&A" (release date 8th of January 2026).

Michele Zanini, PhD, returns to the That Triathlon Show to discuss his latest research on the topic of durability. We also broaden the discussion to include the most up to date research findings on durability from the broader sports science community.

Stephen Barrett is a cycling coach from Ireland, working as the head coach of the UCI WorldTour team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, and coaching several of the riders on the team personally, including GC contender Felix Gall. In this interview we discuss the inner workings of a WorldTour team, and a lot of nuts and bolts training topics right from the top of the world of professional cycling.

Improving your running performance as a triathlete starts with a good and well-structured base training phase. Scientific Triathlon coaches Mikael Eriksson and Jack Hutchens talk you through their methods, and how you can apply these methods to make 2026 your best running year yet!