you
I am so excited to have Heather Gulnick back on we are talking course preview again this time
we are on the bike this really looks cool Heather why don't you start us off tell us a little bit
about that the course in general and what we can expect over the next about 30 minutes well I'm so
excited to be here still welcome to the revolution three troth lawn bike course as you can see it's
beautiful roads and one of the nice things about this particular course that we planned out is
that the roads are fairly smooth there is a quite a bit of undulation so it's going to be a tough
bike course and so for those athletes that are watching this that are going to be getting ready
for this come June you're definitely gonna have to practice your climbs okay what would you say
overall just so people can prepare a little bit is the course generally about the same as far as
difficulty from the start to finish is the start more difficult the middle the end what would you
suggest to people the middle is actually where you're going to see the highest elevation gains
and you're going to have quite a few climbs and then toward the about three quarters of the way
through the bike you're actually going to have your most decline in elevation and then you're
going to finish with a little more climbing toward the end but definitely that first half I think
is a little bit tougher okay now one of the things that we had talked about at great length when
we were talking through the run course is you talked a lot about the downhills for running is
it as important to understand and know and practice your downhills as much as when we talked about
in the run segment well for a lot of athletes the the down really depends on how how much they weigh
I mean obviously 110 pound female is going to go down a hill much slower than 160 pound male the
biggest tip I would say for this course in particular in any hilly course is most that most
athletes that are beginner intermediate you see them working really hard up the hill and then as
soon as they crest the hill they're like oh if you I'm there and they they pretty much stop there
instead of really working up and over the hill and that's where you're going to gain the most
time is working up and over that top now what would you suggest especially there's going to be some
people who this might be their first longer distance triathlon what would you suggest to people
because I know a lot of people have said to me that they're a little bit nervous going down the
hills when they catch some speed is there any way that they can better and and get more used to it
and maybe even somebody who's more advanced you know to get better and faster on those downhills
and obviously we want to make safety the number one goal but how might somebody be able to improve
well even this particular one right here you can see this is quite a big downhill with
a big s-turn for those athletes who aren't comfortable I always tell them the amount of
time you're saving just come out of your arrow bars and get back on your horns especially for
those sharp turns and then for those athletes that are comfortable if it's a windy day to squeeze the
top of your frame with your knees will help if there's wind and you have race wheels on you have
a little vibration in the bike so if you squeeze your knees on top of the frame it takes that away
which just makes you feel that much more comfortable obviously the race course here we're going very
fast but you can see you know that there's some sharp downhills some sharp turns you've seen right
now a ton of downhills so you can just get flying and we will have the the corners marked where there
is a sharp corn and you really need to slow down but for the most part if you can get comfortable
in your arrow bars you're going to be able to to go really fast on this course now one of the
things that you as a pro triathlete you're trying to shave as much time and be as fast as you can
possibly be on all of the things you bring up a really good point as far as when you're turning
when you're making some corners are there any suggestions that you might give to people when
they're taking the sharp corners because there's sometimes when there's going to be it's going to
be maybe some some dirt or some gravel on those roads what suggestions might you give people to
to make those turns a little safer well especially if you're taking these these corners fast you
really want to make sure if you're turning to the left that all your weight is on your right hand
and your your left knees out um practicing your cornering while you're going slow and then being
able to get comfortable enough that you can corner fast is a big deal so i think just for
those people you know a lot of people from florida you know they don't get to practice going around
corners fast so it's something that that they can practice in their bike handling skills in other
ways right now if you look at this course it is really spectacular now this was when the trees were
not in full bloom when they weren't as leafy as they're going to be is that a word leafy anyways
that um when they're in full with leaves in that i think you're going to have some shade on this
course let's talk a little bit about heat um and what people might expect that time of year and a
little bit about the foliage because it is important you talk about different courses that can be a
little bit more out in the open a little bit more accessible to win what do you think in general
about this course and the coverage that you're going to get during the day especially on the bike
well i was i was laughing stew as you were talking about it because we did come out and and ride the
course and um the the court we rode the course the day before we filmed this and it was freezing
i had every piece of clothing on that i could find um i am a very i get cold very easy so i was
freezing it doesn't look like that cold of a day but um it actually started snowing and uh
uh but but it's going to be june and it's going to be just a beautiful beautiful venue i think
it's going to be perfect racing weather we don't expect it to be really really hot nor do we expect
it to be really cold um even if we did have inclement weather if it was a rainy day it's warm
that time of the year um so most of these athletes are going to find that it's pretty perfect racing
weather okay let me ask you one thing if you look at the course one of the things that i've noticed
and especially a course like uh like louisville um and you can also look at a course like wisconsin
ironman wisconsin which you have done very well obviously in those races when looking at the road
there looks to be some we call them snakes i guess here where there's some asphalt that if you get
your tires in those grooves is that something that you think can be a problem or how do you avoid those
those will all be well marked um these are very popular cycling roads up in canada kit and most
of the athletes that we've talked to in this area um a couple of the athletes joined me when i went
and rode up here and there was no problem at all um we'll have those all sprayed but if you look
they're pretty small most of them aren't big enough to to fit your tire okay so we're having no
problem now the other thing that you notice when you're looking at these roads is there there are
no shoulders so you really have to pay attention when you're when you are out there um that there's
not a whole lot of room to the right but it doesn't look like it's too bad a course like louisville is
especially where off the edge of the road it's there's a little bit of a decline but here it looks
like you're gonna be nice and safe even if you do uh waver off just a little bit well the nice thing
is you can see how fast we're going and we've really only passed a couple cars um and so there's
not a lot of traffic out on these roads which is great for those athletes who want to get out here
and train on the course or get out here the day before um and and see the course there's not a
lot of cars out here now one of the things that we're gonna totally switch subjects that for those
here i'm sure everybody knows this but heather is just fresh off another victory uh let's talk
a little bit about when we had talked offline a little bit you were talking about how it was
really a mental race for you how you know mentally you were just you were really strong in that race
tell us a little bit about how people can use because it's not just physical
during a race right now we're looking physically at the race course you know you're physically on
your bike but mentally there's a lot of things that people can do to help themselves um as you
have done so many times in races throughout um your career can you tell us a little bit about
how people can use their mental ability to really complement you know all the training that they've
done up into preparation for this race well that's a good question stew because it is so important
and on a course like this looking at the hills you're gonna have times where you look down and
you're going eight miles an hour and for certain athletes that can frustrate them and you just
have to keep in mind the big picture and that yeah you maybe you're going eight miles an hour but
in another mile and a half you're going to be going 28 miles an hour or 38 or 48 down these hills
and to really just make sure you look at the big picture um during a half iron man you do have
ups and downs times where you're feeling really really good and other times where all of a sudden
it's just hitting you you don't feel great and you have to make sure mentally that you are strong
enough to know that that will pass and that you can keep pushing your body and uh the race I did
just did that you were talking about my body was just screaming at me to to slow down to stop and
that's when I try to push harder and and everybody gets to that point where it's hurting so bad that
that you want to ease up and that's when you try to push harder and um you know a lot of these
climbs people are going to feel like that because they're there's some pretty good climbs.
Now it's always funny because when when we look at races we see pretty much almost all the races
on tv and it never looks like the pro athletes or the people that are up front are suffering so
I'm not glad to hear that you suffer but I think it really does help people to know that that you
are out there just like we are your every you know everyday um age groupers and I think we can learn
from you that that you do go through these horrible periods where you're not feeling or you just
assume stop and and walk as well but you don't and I think it's interesting that you said that when
you felt your worst is when you really pushed it yeah that's when you really have to dig you know
there's I think a few pros out there that are just smiling the whole time that ruin it for all of us
that everyone thinks it's like Chrissy Wellington she's a smiler it's uh yeah no I mean I you know
I'm sure when I came around the corner and I saw these crowds and they're all going crazy and I'm
waving and smiling you know they don't realize that was the last 30 yards I don't realize the
immense you know lactic acid buildup that I was feeling you know the half mile before that as I
passed um you know a quarter of a mile away to the finish for the victory and um it was uh
it's definitely a mental thing okay now one of the things that we talked about a great length
in the last when we when we were looking at the run route of this is is nutrition now take us
through I don't know how you break your nutrition up during the day on the on the course if you
think about like the first third the second third or so on tell us a little bit just over you know
just an overview of your nutrition plan especially you know right out of the swim what you're thinking
during the middle and towards the end how you go about your race plan for nutrition well for
in half Ironman I I definitely do a different than for an Ironman and on this 56 mile course here
I would definitely be making sure you know it's a lot of climbing and you want to make sure that
you're getting your fluids at the right time obviously when you're climbing you want to be
able to get your fluids get your nutrition in because you don't want to have to all of a sudden
be doing that on the downhill you know some athletes have their watch beep every 20 minutes
I'm going to take in my fluid well you just started descending and now you're going to sit up and get
a water bottle and eat a bar so it's it's pre-planning that more specifically than even every time my
watch beeps I'm going to do it it's looking at the course and specifically planning okay at this
hill I'm going to eat this I'm going to drink this and at this time I'm going to do this
and plan it out pretty specifically because it is important because the nutrition is just as
important as the swim training the bike training the run training and so knowing on this course
where you're going to take those you know nutrition breaks sort of say and doing it in the time where
it's not going to impede you it's going to actually give you an advantage right that's kind of interesting
I guess a lot of people do use by time but the nice thing about these videos is you could actually
pick out say hey this is where I'm going to do this this is where I'm going to take in some added
nutrition you could actually have it as is kind of some motivation I guess to say it in another way
so you're not on that downhill and so on but you adjust don't you I mean during your races
um like your most recent race do do you find yourself adjusting saying oh I need I feel like
I need a little bit more or I need a little bit less well the last race there was a stretch of
town that was really crazy like tons of people dogs running around the roads was really rough
so I made sure before that section that I got in a good amount of nutrition because I knew that
whole section I didn't want to have to be concerned with getting out my salt tabs or getting out
something because it was so rough I could have dropped them there and so I pre-planned okay before
the section I'm going to make sure I get in some nutrition and yeah you always are having to you
know if obviously going through that rough section if I would have felt like oh my gosh I really need
more you would have to tweak your plan and and that's what you have to do is on the fly you know
maybe right here you're not planning on taking nutrition on this downhill but you can sense you
need it you're better off doing it than waiting until the next pre-planned spot right now as we're
looking at this course it it's it doesn't look like there's one part of this course where you're
going where you can see a mile down the road it seems like there's a lot of turns not necessarily
90 degree turns but a lot of kind of undulating turning course which makes it seem a lot more
exciting than you're just okay I can see four miles down the road or five miles down the road
yeah it's a very exciting course I I wish I'd come up here and train it's just it's beautiful
it's hilly it's a little technical it's going to be a great course okay what's your favorite part
of the bike course is there any particular section have you hit it yet this right here is a climb
and then it keeps climbing and it keeps climbing so it doesn't look so bad because it kind of
climbs and it flattens out and it kind of climbs but this here is where I was talking about earlier
that this is pretty much one of your biggest elevation gains and you can see we've already
been climbing a good mile and a half and it just keeps climbing it's not steep but you're definitely
climbing and this is the longest climb on the course and your legs are probably saying come on
come on when am I going to get to relax when you can't see the top so you keep thinking where's the
top where's the top but here we're finally at the top so but that is a pretty long climb
and it's just like this all day long so it's pretty unrelenting isn't it
yeah it's going to be I think it's going to be a fast course but it's going to be challenging
okay you know what I want to hit one more thing on nutrition and then we can move on to some other
topics one of the things that that I think a lot of people ask or and say you know should I do this
or shouldn't I how much of your nutrition is based on the the actual heat of the day for example if
it's if it's 70 you know like 75 which is pretty cool for a lot of the races that you've done 75
and and fairly sunny with not a lot of breeze do you change your nutrition do you add a lot more
sodium if it's compared to something where it's like 85 or 90 degrees and you know compare your
sodium intake to your carb intake do both of them increase at the same volume when the heat
goes up well you're it's actually very interesting because when the heat goes up you do but also when
it gets cooler because when you do a really cold race you're actually burning more calories to stay
warm especially the the lower body fat you have the more your body's got to work hard to keep yourself
warm and so a lot of times athletes think in a cold race that they don't have to take in as much
and they don't realize that the body's really burning so much to stay warm and so when it's
70 is pretty easy it's harder when it's when it's 90 or when it's 55 60 and that's when you really
have to kind of tweak your nutrition plan and not so much the nutrition as far as food but the
electrolytes yeah see that's what i'm saying is the do you or do they go up at the same amount so
do you keep increasing your sodium intake and electrolytes as you keep increasing your
carbs or do you separate the two because a lot of people don't separate them they're in one bottle
so if you're taking more sodium or electrolytes you're taking more calories is that something you
see as a problem or something that people can adjust well that's not i don't do it that way but a lot
of athletes do and that works for them you know you you could probably ask 10 pros and five do it
one way and five do it the other way so you separate the two i separate the two and i i found over
the years i'm good at reading my body when i need more a lot of athletes will put their salt in their
bottles i may do that but then i also have salt tabs on top of it so i use the efs and i know exactly
how many electrolytes sodium potassium magnesium is in that but i also know when i need more than
that especially when it's getting up into the 90s right you really need to adjust see that's what's
i think that's what's so great about having having you look at this course and make some commentary
because i think there's some things that you have because you didn't have it perfect on day one when
you first started racing and you probably will still say knowing you that you still don't have it
perfect but you're getting better and better every race you probably know more and more and more
about how to do it and how to do it right well and a lot of it like on this course will really depend
you know what the weather is on the day and that's why that's why we go out there and race and that's
why we never know who's going to win a race because each athlete performs different on different courses
different weather um you know you look at the the world championship 70.3 the half ironman
nobody could have predicted who was going to win because you don't know exactly on that day and
had the weather been different if the course is different would we see different champions yeah
and that's why you know each year so far it's been a different champion every year right and
that's what makes it so exciting all right looking at the race course now boy i just
there isn't one point when it's it's going to be flat but there's not a lot when i tell people
that it's a it's a challenging course um you know we've gotten some emails um i don't know rev three
account and you know i'm a beginner and i make sure i let them know it's a very challenging half
right is there any advice that you would give to somebody who let's say this this is their first
longer course triathlon what advice would you give that person to have them have a successful day
my biggest advice would be to pace yourself um even strong runners have a tendency to go a
little bit too hard in the beginning of the bike i would say do the first you know half of the bike
ride very comfortable if you're feeling great pick it up but don't go you know into that anaerobic
zone at all don't hammer up these hills um and just really stay comfortable and then if you feel
fantastic great you know take it away on the run um but i like to see especially beginners do it that
way and and come across the line feeling fantastic and they they're really proud versus they trash
themselves on the bike and the whole run they were miserable because it's not an easy run
and you want to be out there and you want to feel good and so pacing yourself and we talked a lot
about it for those of you who haven't watched the run segment yet we talk about pacing quite a bit
and just how important it is to pace yourself um use a heart rate monitor use your perceived
exertion and just really make sure that you're staying within yourself because you're racing
and i know i'm super competitive somebody passes me i want to go with them but if that person wasn't
passing you would you be picking it up maybe not so maybe you really need to back off a little bit
and so just trying to stay within yourself and within your plan right now you notice on a lot
of these hills it seems to me that some people are just starting out feel like oh man all these
other people are really hammering it up this hill maybe i should be doing that and it's really
quite the opposite especially the first half what you're saying yeah and you know you might have
a fantastic swim and maybe somebody is going to be first in their age group but they were 25th out
of the water and they're a fantastic cyclist and they go by you and you see that you know the
number on your calves the same as the number on their calves so you decide to go with them and
then you blow your race because you biked outside of your ability your comfort zone or
preparation for this race and and that's why you know especially with the first timers is just
really you know even if you've won every single olympic you've done is just having a plan what is
your heart rates where are you going to be and staying in that and um because there is so much
climbing also figuring out where you're most efficient climbing am i a more efficient climbing
in the saddle at 90 rpms am i better at in the saddle at 60 rpms or should i be standing
i'm a i'm an example i can stand and my heart rate doesn't really jump very much and i'm a lot
quicker when i stand so i stand a lot i'm short and powerful and somebody else may stand in their
heart rate just skyrockets well that person maybe shouldn't be standing they should be spinning up
the hill um and so just finding out too personally where you are the most efficient and how you're
going to be able to come across this course the fastest but the most efficient for that individual
right and you still have that you know we're still only on the bike so you still have to
get off go to transition then have a have a great run mentally what are you do start changing your
focus because we're we're fairly close now to the end do you start changing your focus a little bit
do you actually start thinking about your run do you think okay this is how my bike has gone so far
so this is what i can do on the run or do you really just concentrate on the bike and tell you
get to the run when i'm getting close to the transition i'll be thinking through my transition
in my head what i'm going to be doing so it goes smooth but also the last probably the last three
miles of a half iron man or iron man course i run at about 92 rpms is my run cadence and so i want to
make sure even if there's a hill at the end even though i'm more efficient standing and going slower
i will make sure that that revolutions is the same so then when i get off and run it's not if i've
been pushing a big year let's say i'm doing 60 rpms and i get off and i'm trying to run 90 it's
going to be really hard and so i will make sure that those last miles so to say i'm spinning a
little bit more that's really interesting that you say that do you find that um it helps especially
beginners to start looking at that 90 cadence i know there's no magical cadence but you know would
you suggest people to to do that or to be more in the 60s or 70s or is it just better to be right
about 90 if you're just learning if if you haven't seen the person and i don't know their strengths
or weaknesses i would say be at 90 um obviously there's people that you meet we do um all our
triathlon camps and we work on people's most efficient pedal stroke you know there are athletes
out there who push 80 rpms and they have fantastic you know they go and win iron man's and that's
where they are the strongest they push the most power so everyone's a little bit different
but generally speaking 90 rpms is the average and everybody has a little different run cadence and
a lot of athletes beginner athletes don't even know what their run cadence is or count their run
cadence at our triathlon camps we're we're often working on that because a lot of people aren't
even aware of that it's funny it's funny how sometimes you just go back to the basics isn't it
i bet you find that in even some really really good athletes and maybe even yourself sometimes is
when things are not going as you have you know you'd like sometimes you just go back to the basics
and say you know this is what i need to do not all the fancy stuff just getting back to the basics
yep yep so let's talk a little bit about where we are in the course now and what we can expect
just the last little bit before we go into our transition well the nice thing we're seeing here
on the course is actually quite a bit of downhill so you've done a lot of long climbs you've done
a lot of climbing and now you're getting a little bit of a breather um this is where i would tell
people to relax you know make sure your shoulders are relaxed make sure you've gotten in your nutrition
if you're feeling depleted at all you want to make sure you're getting stumped in in before the run
and just really trying to enjoy it because this is coming toward the the home stretch of the course
okay do you try to get in a little bit more nutrition right here or are you done for the most
part until the run i if i get too much in i get some sloshing in my stomach so i'm pretty conscious
about getting more of my calories in earlier on okay so then now you're you're pretty much laying
off or or a little bit lighter until we get into that transition area yes but if you're depleted at
all you want to get it in because it's harder to get calories in when you're running okay and so if
anyone is is not gotten enough you know this might be a perfect time to be doing the calorie count in
your head and if you're didn't get as many calories in as you know you should have um this is a perfect
time to get them in because you don't want to start the run already behind in calories you said
something really interesting a couple minutes ago in that you actually go through in your mind
the the next transition now i i know it seems pretty logical but for someone like yourself
at the pro level to say you know you're really consciously thinking about something you've done
and you can probably do in your sleep it is amazing it may we may take note of that only
for the fact that we might actually make a faster transition just by consciously thinking about it
just maybe even for a few minutes towards the end of the bike well i'm laughing because because
it's true but i'm laughing because sometimes i'm slow in transition i you know want to sit down
and have a nap or you know sit down and have something to eat or something so concentrating
on it gets me through it quicker and more sufficiently and and on task of what i need to do
um i'll see my husband and my kids and i want to stop and have a chat and so if i'm concentrating
on it i'll make sure i stay on tasks and and do what i need to do one of the really great things
about this entire race is there there is going to be some technology that people have not seen
in triathlon talk a little bit about what they're going to see and how exciting this is going to be
well it's going to be great the athletes are going to get the opportunity to use a trackers
tracking device and at this point they would be getting a message that their athlete is going to
be coming into transition soon so it'd be time to get off the rides or time to get out of the water
on the beach and time to you know get back into the transition so they can see dad or mom come
through and that's just fantastic i know for my husband with three children they want to know when
i'm coming but sometimes it's takes me 10 minutes longer or sometimes i'm faster and so you can
guesstimate how long it's going to take you to do the course but with this tracking device
you're going to know exactly where your athlete is at the entire race course which is just going
to be phenomenal not only for the athletes but it's really going to be for the spectators your
spouse your loved one your aunt your uncle whoever um whether they're at home on the computer or
they're here at the race they're going to be able to follow you every step of the way which is just
amazing it's um live time gps and so they're knowing where you are the entire time i think it's
really exciting it's so stressful for some people um being spectators i know that sounds crazy but
just knowing where their their their friend their husband that whatever it might be
is out there and just to know that hey they're only five minutes away everything's fine maybe
they're just going a little bit slower um it is really nice and it's a constant it's kind of fun
because you get to be more a part of the race and i think that's the big thing is that the
spectators for the first time are really going to be an a really an important part of the race
not just being a spectator they're going to be a part of the race it's going to be stew it's just
going to be fantastic and it's just going to take viewing a triathlon to that next level it's going to
be it's going to be watched by people all over the internet and people are going to tell their
friends and it's going to be great because even the week after the race they're going to be able
to come back to the site and watch things again and it's it's just going to be amazing right and
especially with all the video i mean we talked about the gps part but it's also there's a huge
part where there's going to be video you're going to be able to follow some athletes it's going to be
it's going to be really incredible yeah people are going to be able to see you're and i face they're
going to be able to like watch us talking together and see us interviewing the athletes and it's
going to be spectacular and live time i think it's really going to bring a whole new level to
to watching a race unfold because a lot of times like you said you know you were smiling when you
came in but we didn't get to see what was happening two or three miles out or maybe a battle between
yourself or our pro you're actually not going to be racing unfortunately but there's other
pros that are going to be out there that are going to be battling it and be able to actually see that
battle unfold yeah it's just it's going to take the viewing to a completely new level
it'll be fantastic so we'll be able to i can see the kids out there hey there's mom there's mom i get
to really you know for them a lot of times they don't get to see it until that day so here we are
are we are at the end of of the ride i know it went so quick we had a great time talking here
talk a little bit about what they're going to see when they come into the finish line here
or the transition area and then head out into the run well the transition is hopefully just
going to be filled with spectators obviously the transition is right here at the quasi amusement
park and it's going to be open for friends and family and your loved ones to enjoy all
day and that's something that we're doing very different than other races we want to open the
park up to everyone free of charge when when you've registered for the race to make it just
enjoyable for them and so hopefully they will have gotten the message that you were coming they
will be off the ride and be able to come and just watch you through this transition the
transition is right by the road you will just come in and off on the run you go and it'll
just also be great for families after the race is over and we hope that everyone will stick around
and and enjoy the park for the day yeah well heather i certainly enjoy this has been awesome again
talking about the race course the next time you see you and i together we're going to actually be
at the race so i cannot wait to actually be at this race and see it all unfold see the technology
see this wonderful course and just be part of of really i think what's going to be triathlon history
in this race so thanks again for coming on this has been this has been incredible thanks dude thanks
for doing this with us and we look forward to seeing everybody at the revolution three triathlon
in middlebury canada kit june 7th
