Scientific Triathlon

🚴 Two of the biggest position trends of the last few years, high aerobars and the long Superman, and the aero consultant testing them says the mechanism people believe in is the wrong one.

It is not the arms blocking redirecting airflow, and it is not the extra length. Both changes make it easier to drop your head, and head position is where Marc Graveline sees the biggest single impact on drag. Hold the head in the same place and go long anyway, and he says the gain stops showing up.

Which is also why he films riders before he tests them.

Full episode with .graveline out now, link in bio.

🤕 In 5,205 runners, across 18 months of Garmin data and 588,071 runs, the thing that best predicted an overuse injury wasn't the increase in weekly mileage nor the acute:chronic workload ratio (or TSB, ATL etc). 

It was going longer in a single run compared to the longest run of your previous 30 days by at least 10%. Ten to thirty percent longer came with a 64% higher injury rate. More than 100% longer led to a 128% increase in injury risk.

Observational data, so association rather than proof of cause, and injuries were self-reported. But the practical version is simple: don’t increase the distance of your longest run in big jumps or even moderate jumps, make the increases small steps instead. 

Episode 709 (the August Research Roundup) is out now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube, and on scientifictriathlon.com/tts709/

Paul Booth is the nutritionist and physiologist who worked with both the male and female winners of UTMB in 2025. He argues that endurance sport went from the keto era straight to the ultra-high-carb era, with people now chasing beyond 120 grams of carbs an hour.

Paul has spent years trying to prove that ultra-high carb works, and says the data simply isn't there. He calls himself a 90-gram of carb guy (NB. 90 grams of carbs per hour). There's a ceiling to how much you can actually use, and it sits lower than most people think.

❓How many grams of carbs per hour do you typically consume in your key races?
(My answer: 100-110 g/h)

Jack Kelly hates the fear-mongering about fatigue and obsession with words like "absorbing" training and recovery he perceives as pervasive myths in the triathlon world.

For a big deep dive into Jack's coaching and beliefs about training, listen to episode 704 of That Triathlon Show!

A familiar voice in the triathlon world is the next interviewee on That Triathlon Show...

New episode coming this Thursday at 5am UTC/GMT. Be sure to plan at least 2h10 minutes of training for the day!

A crit racer came to Kolie Moore with a 330-watt FTP and no crit-specific training. They cut his FTP-work for repeated sprints and strength. His FTP dropped 10 to 15 watts. His racing took off. More watts isn't the same as faster when you're lacking key aspects of the demands of the event you're training for.

Kolie rated “Event Specificity” as an underrated performance factor in this episode of That Triathlon Show. Listen in to hear what else is on his list of overrated and underrated factors.

A crit racer came to Kolie Moore with a 330-watt FTP and no crit-specific training. They cut his FTP-work for repeated sprints and strength. His FTP dropped 10 to 15 watts. His racing took off. More watts isn't the same as faster when you're lacking key aspects of the demands of the event you're training for.

Kolie rated “Event Specificity” as an underrated performance factor in this episode of That Triathlon Show. Listen in to hear what else is on his list of overrated and underrated factors.