TriDot Podcast .07:

Harness Your DNA to Unleash Your Performance Potential

This is the TriDot Podcast. TriDot uses your training data and genetic profile combined with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results in less time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire, and entertain. We’ll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Join the conversation and let’s improve together.

Andrew: Hey, everyone. Welcome to the TriDot Podcast. We’ve got a great one for you today. I have the two people on the entire planet with the deepest knowledge of TriDot in the studio with me. And we’re going to unpack all the ways that TriDot can leverage your genetic data to optimize your triathlon training. It’s going to be real fascinating stuff. First up in the studio with me is TriDot founder and CEO, Jeff Booher. Jeff is the chief architect behind TriDot’s insight optimization technology, and lead the charge to integrate genetic data into that mix. Jeff, you ready to chat genomes and triathlon training with me today?

Jeff: Absolutely. It’s gonna be fun.

Andrew: Also with us is coach John Mayfield. Now, John is a six-time Ironman finisher who has coached hundreds of athletes to reach their own Ironman finish line. He also serves as the director of athletes services for TriDot. John, thanks for being with me here.

John: Yep, glad to be here.

Andrew: And who am I, I am Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people, and captain of the middle of the pack. Now today, we’re going to warm up with a very fun question about celebrities and triathlon. Then we’ll head to today’s super sciencey and super interesting main set, talking about genetic data and triathlon training. And for the cool down, we’ll get some practical racing advice with something we call the real quick training tip. Lots of great stuff. Let’s get to it.

Time to warm up. Let’s get moving.

Andrew: All right. Guys, for today’s warm up question I’m going to take us out of the studio and out onto the racecourse. So, we all know that while you’re racing, there’s hundreds of times that somebody there passes you or you pass somebody, right? And so for today’s question, here’s what I want to know, If you could pick any celebrity, dead or alive throughout history, whoever you want to be the person that is passing you or that you are passing on a racecourse, and so for a moment in time, you are side by side with that person, who would you pick?

Jeff: First thing that popped into my mind was the first person was Will Ferrell, Ricky Bobby. So, you know, “Shake and bake, baby,” “If you’re not first, you’re last.” I figured, depending on the kind of day I’m having, that can either be real motivating or a comfort and a relief.

Andrew: Would you say, “Shake and bake!” as he was kind of going by you and kind of give him the “shake and bake” little fist pump like they do in the movie?

Jeff: Absolutely. Just pump and twist, yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. No, I love it. John, what about you?

John: So, one of my favorite things about racing Ironman is interacting with people out on the run course. It’s a long day, so it’s great to interact. So, I think Gordon Ramsay would be an interesting guy to interact with.

Andrew: Well, he’s actually an Ironman.

John: And he’s an Ironman athlete so, yeah. He’s out there and knows what’s up and I think he’d be a little bit interesting. He would probably have some motivational words.

Andrew: He’d have some words, yeah.

John: Colorful words.

Jeff: Gourmet nutrition.

John: Absolutely. Yeah. He may stop off the aid stations and show them what’s up.

Andrew: Can you imagine an aid station run by Gordon Ramsay just what would be there and –

John: Hell’s aid station.

Andrew: Yeah, hell’s aid station, I love that. I’m going to say a different one today. The last time we talked about this with some coaches, I gave the response Robert Downey Jr. because how could you not want to be passed by Iron Man while doing an Ironman? So, just to be different today, here’s another one that I thought of that would be super fun. Especially like deep into the run, you know, you’re hurting, you want to get to the finish line, I want something to take my mind off the pain I’m going through, right? So, imagine Gene Simmons, lead singer of Kiss, going by you in his full out like Kiss makeup outfit, leather boots, whatever. Like that would get your attention, it would take your mind off of what was happening. And I would argue this, I don’t think that would look all that out of place on a racecourse because have you seen some of the tri kits that people are racing in these days? Some of them aren’t that far off from a Gene Simmons-like Kiss outfit, right?

John: And some of those shoes too are getting pretty tall.

Andrew: So, yeah, we won’t call any brands here today. But yeah, there’s some shoes at some stack height.

John: At a couple inches, yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, Gene Simmons would not be that far off from being on a racecourse.

On to the main set. Going in 3, 2, 1.

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The science of genetic analysis has become more and more sophisticated over the years. For the consumer, well-known companies like Ancestry.com and 23andMe have long been able to provide information about ethnicity and family history. But now the science goes even deeper, with only a small vial of your spit, DNA tests now show far more specific results that can reveal the health and fitness implications of your DNA. TriDot’s PhysiogenomiX module is the newest way your training can be further optimized. And before we get into the meat of TriDot’s use of athlete genetics and what PhysiogenomiX is and how it works, guys, it’s such a new feature. I’d love to hear how it’s been received so far since its launch. John?

John: So, our ambassadors got a heads-up on this module several months ahead of time, and we really didn’t know what level of interest there’d be. So, we sent an interest questionnaire asking yes or no, would they want to participate, and we got a 95% participation response.

Andrew: And mostly everybody was like, yes, let’s try this. Let’s do this.

John: Yeah. And as we rolled it out to our users, it’s been the same great response.

Andrew: So, on a personal level, I know both of you guys have had your DNA analyzed. And once you did, and you got those results back, were you surprised about anything you discovered?

John: So, for me, it was interesting because I’m adopted, so I don’t have that family history. So, for me, it was interesting, just from that aspect, as I’ve always wondered what is my ancestry. So, it was kind of a –

Andrew: What is your ancestry, John?

John: I am 99.9% Western European.

Andrew: Okay. Not shocking.

John: Yeah, it reflects in my dancing abilities. So, as interesting as that was, there weren’t necessarily any great surprises in that. So, likewise, when I was able to upload my genome to the module, I didn’t have any great surprises. But there was definitely some validation and some of the things that I knew as far as my potential and my predispositions. So, it was great to have that validation of some of those things that I’d already been working with.

Andrew: Very cool. Jeff, were you surprised by anything you found out in your results?

Jeff: Actually, I was. Several years ago when we first got started with this, I did my own analysis, and I discovered that I had a high injury predisposition. So, that was very eye opening to me. I think I’d been in denial about that. Looking back, I explain it why I say denial, is because I knew different athletes who have different injuries here and there and you attribute it to, Am I doing too much, am I this, am I that? And so over the 30 years of doing athletics –

Andrew: Let’s blame it on a shoe and surely it was these new running shoes that I just got.

Jeff: Change of shoes, it’s too much dramatic, you need you know, all the different things you do, your recovery. So, there’s all these different ways to attribute that to. And so you start changing those but then when you look and say, “Okay, yes, injury predisposition is my genetics, I’m more inclined to do that.” So, that was kind of shocking, so kind of better to be eyes wide open. And now getting older, I just turned 50 not too long ago, so it’s even more important. So, with that, knowing I’m predisposed to get more injuries, now what does my training look like? So, that’s the value. Now we can do things differently knowing whatever that is to make sure that people just get the most out of their training.

Andrew: So, before people go out there and they get their own genome file from these websites, and they dive into the world of what possibilities that genetics can have for their own training, is there any advice or are there any warnings that you give to people for when or before they get to the point that they’re ready to dig into their genetics and review their analysis?

Jeff: Absolutely. There’s a whole – I learned this through the process that when people even looking into the part of genetics that tells you about your predisposition for different diseases, and all kinds of different things. There’re genetics counselors out there. There’s a whole profession where you can – different doctors. And they deal with people for that, for dealing with how, when you have the knowledge of something, how do you cope with that, how do you deal with that.

Andrew: Because you might not find anything too threatening but you might find out some stuff that you’re like, “Whoa!”

Jeff: Yeah, can freak you out. And not everybody, but some people, and so that’s useful, but the same thing here. We’re talking about athletic people who want to do triathlons and want to do well. So, the first thing is not to get discouraged no matter what it shows. If you’re looking at, we have different categories of what we score and display to the athletes. What is discouraging to me, or can be to athletes, is not knowing. They should say not knowing is what’s kind of scary. Knowing, you can do something differently about it. Athletes that are out there, they get a result that says you don’t have a high aerobic potential. I’m in triathlon, well that sucks. Let’s go take up another sport.

Andrew: Guess you gotta do CrossFit, man.

Jeff: Yeah. So, no, not at all. So, it’s a relative thing. So, when they do these studies and we learn who is and isn’t more, has more aerobic potential, it’s a relative thing. So, everybody can train to do triathlons. Everybody can respond and improve and all of those things; people just do it at different rates.

Andrew: So, no matter what you find out, you’re going to be fine. You can still do this sport, enjoy it.

Jeff: Absolutely. So, success is about consistently doing the right training right. And so this helps, this data helps us know what that right training is. Whatever results you would have gotten without the information, you’re going to get even better results now.

John: So, this is a case where knowledge is power. So, genetics are what they are. We can’t change that. But what we can change is how we approach training, and that’s really the purpose of integrating genetics in with TriDot is, so now we can leverage this information. We can utilize this knowledge into power so that we train to maximize each athlete’s potential, whatever that may be given their strengths and weaknesses and constraints by knowing what makes them, them. We can now create training specifically for each individual that is going to set them up for their best results, going to help them reduce their injury occurrence and allow them to enjoy triathlon.

Andrew: So, TriDot has long had TrainX and RaceX and now we have PhysiogenomiX. Easily the coolest name in our X series, guys. Now, I may or may not go out of my way to see how many times on today’s episode I can say PhysiogenomiX, so wish me luck on that, huge word. I love it so much. So, Jeff, now that it’s here, tell me what PhysiogenomiX is.

Jeff: Well, as you know, everyone knows the field of genetic research has just exploded since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003. So, we’re able to study a whole lot of things about a person’s DNA and how that impacts us. So, clearly finding like John mentioned, your ancestry, where your roots are, that’s very popular. That’s a great motivator for people who they can find that information out from their genome, DNA, after they’ve been genome typed. But there’s just so much more that we can do with it. So, there’s different fields of study that have emerged. One is nutritional genomics, which is nutrigenomics, and that’s a multi-billion dollar industry already. So, that’s just a study of the interaction between nutrition and your genes. So, especially with regard to prevention and treatment of diseases, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and those kinds of things and how you can modify your nutrition –

Andrew: Based on your DNA, what your body needs?

Jeff: Correct. The other is pharmacology, it’s drugs, pharmacogenomics.

Andrew: That’s probably huge for doctors and prescribing medicine, knowing this medicine is for your DNA, who you are.

Jeff: Definitely. Definitely. And having different medicines for people that react in different ways. So, what we’re doing now is PhysiogenomiX, which is the physiological connection relationship between your genes and how you respond to your physiology based on your genetics. So, that’s the function of your cardiovascular system, your metabolic neurological systems, exercise physiology. So, all of that. So, our research and application focus specifically on how an athlete’s genes affect their response to training, which involves all of those physiological functions that I just mentioned.

Andrew: So, TriDot’s PhysiogenomiX is kind of the same as what you talked about, the nutrigenomics, or the pharmacogenomics, or is it a little bit different?

Jeff: Well, similar in the sense that this taking your genomics, your genes relative to something else; nutrition, physiology, pharmacology. So, in that sense, it’s an area of study related to genetics. But where it’s different is there’s researchers doing that research. But then when you get the research, when you go out there and have genotyping done, what you’re going to get from that is you’re going to get reports that give you guidelines, recommendations, tips for doing different things. So, here’s the things you should eat, here’s the drugs you should or shouldn’t take. But what we’re able to do is so much more powerful than that because not only can we see these correlations and make these recommendations and give you guidance on what you should and shouldn’t do or what your inclined or less inclined to be able to do, we can actually take it in do actions and perform actions and prescribe training differently. Now, we can actually give you specifically those actions to take and follow that up with that optimization by tracking your data after that. And so we see the results of that, whereas you might get a nutritional study that says, do this diet. They don’t have data on what did all of those people do, did they follow the recommendations? Did they not follow the recommendations? How was it different based on different recommendations? Whereas we’re able to do that over the next months and years for all the athletes after you have your DNA uploaded to TriDot.

Andrew: So, for TriDot, this DNA integration has been in the works for quite some time. Jeff, tell me a little bit about what it took to fine-tune the effect an athlete’s genetics has on their training?

Jeff: Well, it goes into the same models, our optimization engine that uses all kinds of factors, and all kinds of variables for optimizing training. But it started with this piece which is a whole different area. I’m not a geneticist or any of this kind of stuff. But I did a whole lot of research on finding, okay, after someone’s DNA is genotyped, the scientists do their work, we get a genotype file. So, based on that, what can I look for? What are those genes that have been tied to different correlations between athletic performance recovery, injury predisposition, so I just scoured –

Andrew: Because science has already figured that out. We didn’t figure that out.

Jeff: Correct. So, they’ve been mapping all of that stuff, researching that stuff for decades. And so I went and found the things that were most established, those correlations between different genes, and started tracking those and studying those. And so what would we do different if an athlete had this gene versus that gene? And doing that decision-making process through that. We started with, like you mentioned, a little over four years ago with a small group of athletes. And then we gradually increased that and added more and more and more. Some of the genes that we track and optimized are displayed inside the application. There’s a lot of others that aren’t or we’re still tracking and monitoring how we do different things, and what kind of difference it makes in their training and their response to training. So, how the athlete’s data impacts the training is very straightforward. It’s very complex but it’s very straightforward, just like you think it would be. We’re already optimizing training based on a whole ton of different variables and that enormous amount of data, but we’re just adding the genomics now and that genetic data to the mix.

Andrew: So, it’s kind of like with it, the data, TriDot already has about its athletes, it already knows the 85-90%, about who you are. And then once you plug in your genome, you plug in your genetic data, it’s just giving TriDot that much more of a fuller picture of who you are.

Jeff: Exactly. So, we’ve been optimizing training, it’s very fine-tuned already, per athlete based on your body composition, age, how long you’ve been doing the sport, your performance level, the relative difference between your disciplines. I mean, just tons and tons, I could name several dozens more things that we’re looking at. So, you have these expected ranges of what you would prescribe or the expected outcomes of how an athlete would respond to that. And so that acceptable range now gets narrowed because before that you were giving it to everybody. Now, we can see, based on their DNA, Should they be at the top end, the middle, or the bottom end of a particular range? And so we have different expected results, but we can also prescribe more narrowly, exactly what they should be doing. And then there’s opportunity cost. If you train someone too much, too little, too frequently, too intensely, then there’s a cost to that. And so we don’t train people too much and so we can use that ability to absorb training somewhere else, to do something else, for that particular athlete. So, it’s just further optimization, but the same process, the same engine, and everything else.

Andrew: Science, I love it. I love science. So, let’s talk about the science of this for just a second. When I spit into the vial, and I sent it to 23andMe or Ancestry.com, I got my results back. What is actually in those genome results? We keep using the word genome, what is in those results that TriDot can use to tailor my training like we just talked about?

Jeff: Yeah, so we get a file back and that file has different SNPs in it.

Andrew: So far, snips [SNPs] has been the simplest word on this entire podcast.

Jeff: Actually, it’s an acronym, SNP, you pronounce it “snip.”

Andrew: Oh. So, it’s not simple.

Jeff: The word is single nucleotide polymorphism.

Andrew: SNP works.

Jeff: Yes, SNP works.

Andrew: So, SNP is good.

Jeff: You have DNA, it’s found in your genes, genes found on your chromosomes. So, you have your – that’s the 23andMe – so you have 23 chromosomes. So, a gene is a strand or segment of your DNA on your chromosomes, and those are made up of base pairs, where A bonds with G, C with T. And so scientists look at specific places, they’ve mapped the genome, they know what genes should be found where. And so now what they’re looking for, is it an A and a G or a C and T to determine which gene you may have. So, they’ll check and there’s SNPs, these single nucleotide polymorphisms, and there’s different RSIDs, which is like an address on the gene of where is that SNP found. So, we’ll check different SNPs for different genes and if it’s A or G or C or T, then we know what gene that person has or doesn’t have. And so the scientist, when they research they’ll know it can be, say a C or T. And so they’ll do an analysis and one of those alleles, a C, those are both called alleles. One of them might be the reference or would be designated as a reference, so that’s like a base group, and the variant is the other one. And so they’ll say everybody that has a C is an East African distance runner, and everyone has a T. So, they’ll look for these different correlations between the two populations. So, they’ll do these cohort studies and look for the different alleles and see if that correlation is different, based on the general public.

Andrew: And so that’s how they found whatever your results are, they’re comparing them to other athletes with those same genomes.

Jeff: Correct. So, they’ll go out and study, they’ll do averages on the whole population, and then they’ll take a segment, that’s what they started doing and they’ve refined that and there’s a whole bunch different methodologies. But they could go find, okay, all of these elite athletes, let’s check their genes. We know this gene has something to do with metabolic rate or aerobic function somehow. And so they’ll just see is there a different correlation between these variants in these elite athletes or powerlifters or whatever they’re studying, compared to the general population. And if they see this big variant, then they say, yes, there’s this correlation, and they do further studies. So, what we’re looking for is, we have those genes, the SNPs identified, so we get that genome file, we look for the RSID associated with the SNP, that SNP is associated with the gene and so we know which gene they have, which variant. So, whether it’s the reference of the variant, and then you have different kind, heterogeneous, so we can get one from the mother and one from the father. So, if the variant that says you have a high aerobic potential is a T and you have an A and a T, then you’re kind of in the middle. If you have a T and a T, then that’s much stronger, usually depending on the gene and the response that we’re looking for. So, a much stronger expression of that, which is your phenotype, is the expression of that gene in your body, and how you behave differently or react differently to your environment.

Andrew: So, Jeff, to your credit, you are not a genetic scientist?

Jeff: Definitely not.

Andrew: With your knowledge base, you could at least play one on TV with how much you’ve learned and the TriDot team has learned about this science.

Jeff: Once again, it took me four years. So, you study something long enough, you learn some words.

Andrew: So, from having the idea to tie this into triathlon training, to the point that we’re tying it in, was four years?

Jeff: Yeah, a little under, a little under actually.

Andrew: So, what are the main training implications that PhysiogenomiX analyzes from those DNA data?

Jeff: Well, that’s cool to watch. I’ll list some of those kinds. It depends on the person: someone’s age, body composition, a number of different things could have the same limitation for them that their genes do. Or they could have some overlapping correlation between how they respond to training. So, there in the results that you see that you can read in the app when you upload your genome, it checks training intensity response, aerobic potential, your recovery rate, so post-exercise recovery rate, and your injury predisposition. So, the training intensity response really looks at, based on your genetics, it influences how you respond to training. So, what your training emphasis should be, and your improvement expectations over a given period of time, how do we emphasize? Do we emphasize more power-based training, a more aerobic training? How quickly should you respond to that and improve and get better? So, without that, think about not having that expectation knowledge, you don’t know. Is this training better than that training? So, when we’re optimizing, inside the optimization engine, if you don’t know genetics or let’s take the positive approach, if you now know the genetics, you can explain away which athletes should produce more results in less amount of time, genetically and which ones shouldn’t. And so you can further optimize the value training.

Andrew: For both of them?

Jeff: For both of them. They both benefit.

Andrew: And so on that spectrum, you’re learning your body is more predisposed to increasing in power or increasing in aerobic efficiency.

Jeff: Correct. Right. And so there’s a lot of athletes that have high aerobic trainability, their aerobic potential, and they can do junk training, and they improve fast genetically. So, they make the correlation, oh, this training must be great. And then someone else does it or this works for me, this doesn’t work for me and it’s just that blind chaos. But with the proper emphasis and expectations around improvement, you can ensure that the training time, the intensities are optimized to achieve the type of results that that athlete needs. As far as aerobic potential, it’s much the same, it influences how quickly and to what degree you’re able to increase your aerobic fitness. So, that can increase your training blocks, how long you spend both short- and long- course racing in different blocks with different training emphases. If you can work on your functional threshold training for a longer period of time because you’re gonna be able to ramp up more quickly as the race gets closer, then you get to spend more time building power. If it’s going to take you longer, you make different choices and the length of your phases changes.

Andrew: So, on aerobic potential I mean, what happens if an athlete learns that they have a very, very low aerobic potential, does that mean they’ve picked the wrong sport?

Jeff: No, absolutely not. I think you asked that, something similar in the first question just about how what should people do going in with those expectations. Realizing if you love the sport, everybody can go do bodybuilding, weightlifting, even if you’re an endurance athlete, you can enjoy that, you’re going to get stronger if you go in the weight room. If you’re an endurance athlete, you’re going to get stronger, your muscles are going to get bigger, you’re gonna be able to push more steel, whatever, metal and iron, pumping iron. And then if you’re an endurance athlete, same thing, if you respond to power training better, these are just a relative thing. You’re going to perform well, you’re going to improve, just the thing is knowing and having knowledge of your DNA. What is your reality, how did God make you? And then let’s train you appropriately.

Andrew: So, it helps us kind of learn our training intensity response, and it helps us learn kind of what our actual aerobic potential is.

Jeff: Correct.

Andrew: Is there anything else that we’re finding out from those genomes once we upload them?

Jeff: Yeah. So, the recovery rate, that primarily influences your training intensities, the frequency, specifically regard with higher intensity sessions. We don’t want to put too much stress in one session that you don’t have enough to recover by the next quality session. And so we’re making smarter decisions there, and then how much time is required for tapering and recovery. Then injury predisposition is kind of the same thing when it’s looking to training intensity or even volume, their overuse injuries, your total volume, how much you increase your volume from week to week. Or over mesocycle to mesocycle, over monthly periods, how much you increase intensity, your overall volume, your long sessions. Also goes into warmup drills, how ballistic are they? So, you can have the same warmup differently and someone that’s predisposed to injury that’s in a high volume or a highly intense period with a lot of frequency because they need that, maybe they have less intense drills so they’re not doing the bounding.

Andrew: I gotcha. So, what happens if, just talk about recovery rate, injury predisposition, John, what happens if I find out okay, I’m more predisposed to injury? Am I going to start seeing in my training more recovery time built into my sessions or are the changes going to be a little more subtle than that, that I wouldn’t maybe notice them?

John: Generally, any of the adjustments within TriDot are pretty small. It’s more of a refinement, kind of a thing. So, potentially it could be in recovery, but it’s also going to be in the sets that are prescribed. So, the sets that you do are going to create the training stress, and that is what has to be managed for those individuals with a higher predisposition for injury. That has to be coupled with adequate recovery to those very specific sessions and the associated training stress that comes along with those sessions. So, it’s really about managing the entire training load and how sessions work together. So, balancing sessions every day, each week, over the whole mesocycle because you’re dealing with both acute and accrued training stress. So, it’s about managing all of that in order to allow the athlete to continually make those adaptations and improvements while keeping them healthy.

Andrew: So, John, when an athlete uploads their genotype file into TriDot, what information are they going to see in their PhysiogenomiX results?

John: So, they’ll see their PhysiogenomiX analysis, which provides a couple different graphics. So, they start pretty high level, kind of breaking down the things that Jeff mentioned previously: their training intensity response, aerobic potential, recovery rate, their injury predisposition. And it’s just kind of a basic graph that’s going to provide a high level of information to the athletes so they can now see and understand what TriDot is receiving and how their training is going to be adjusted based on that. And then, for those that are interested, they can really dive into it. So, Jeff mentioned the genes prior. So, each one of these genes associated with each one of these topics is actually described. It shows which gene they have and then more information on how that gene helps influence the decision, and how that makes up their individual characteristics. So, it starts very high level for those that are just kind of curious as to what’s going on. And for those that really want to dive into it and dig into what each gene means, and what the effect of that gene is, that information is available as well.

Andrew: They can look into all the SNPs, all the SNPs, right.

John: SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms.

Andrew: Hey, look at you, John. I’m not even gonna try, not even gonna try that one. I’m doing well just to keep saying PhysiogenomiX over and over and over again. So, I’m doing good there. So, hey, for all the athletes listening, who’ve heard all this and they’re super interested in finding out what their DNA can do for their triathlon training. John, what is the first step and how long does it take for DNA results to start having an impact on our training?

Jeff: So, the athletes can go to TriDot.com/genetics, and that can provide more information about PhysiogenomiX and how it impacts training. As far as actually integrating their own genetics into their training, the first thing is to have their genome mapped. So, this entails going through that process, through one of these vendors that match genomes. That takes a couple weeks. Generally, it’s four to six week turnaround by the time they submit the sample till they get the results back. From there, they’re able to download their actual genome from the website, which then is simply uploaded to TriDot and then immediately, as soon as that’s uploaded, their training begins to be impacted by that new data.

Andrew: So, will any form of a genome file import into TriDot or does it specifically have to be from 23andMe or Ancestry.com?

John: So, currently, those are the two that we have integration with, 23andMe and Ancestry.com. We are adding others. Those two organizations are the largest and most common. So, prior to implementation, we need to do extensive testing to make sure that the genome typing service is high quality, not just for the athlete’s sake, but for the data integrity on our side, too.

Andrew: Okay. So, triathletes, right, they want to know what the best of the best is. You give them two competing options and they want to know. Track or specialized, which bike should I buy? Ford or Chevy, which car should I drive? We want to know. So, two options here, Ancestry.com or 23andMe. Jeff, which one is the best one to go with?

Jeff: Well, we started with 23andMe, they had better integration and we could just do it quicker. We’ve been getting files, we have a lot of athletes now who are submitting both, which is wonderful. So, if athletes have that and they want to send us another one. And our researching on our existing staff and the first athletes that have come on, we found that they’re very, very similar. They’re both accurate. Where the difference is, Ancestry checks, a few more SNPs. So, it has a little bit more comprehensive. There might be two or three here and there on a file that Ancestry may have the data for and 23andMe doesn’t. So, we haven’t found anything where they disagree, and they had different results. So, they’re both highly accurate. But Ancestry.com was a little bit more comprehensive.

Andrew: Okay. So, guys, before we head to our cooldown, I have just one last highly intelligent, super important question that I have to ask before we move on, right? We’re diving into science, we’re diving into genetics. So, tell me this, if TriDot obtains the genotype files, from the dinosaurs from Jurassic World, the movie franchise, could we optimize a velociraptor’s triathlon training?

Jeff: I’ll let John take that one.

Andrew: The people need to know, John.

Jeff: He does the paleontology module so –

John: So, Jeff has spent the last four years learning about genetics and DNA. Pretty much everything I know about DNA came from Jurassic Park. So, everything within TriDot is based on big data. So, we could optimize a Velociraptor’s training but first, we would have to have data from thousands of Velociraptors because we’re not basing training just on theory or philosophy, it’s all data-driven. So, in order to qualify for TriDot’s standards, we would need data from thousands of Velociraptors which –

Andrew: So, we need a few more Jurassic World movies before we have –

John: I think we’d have a bigger problem though. If there were thousands of Velociraptors out there creating data, we would first need to manage that and –

Jeff: We might have fewer triathletes.

Andrew: We’d definitely have fewer triathletes.

John: I don’t think they’d be good swimmers though, so I think we’re okay.

Andrew: Hey, we can swim, swim, and swim, right?

John: Yeah.

Andrew: Open water swimming events become more popular.

John: Who knows what’s in the water at that point though?

Andrew: All right. Let’s go cool down.

Great set everyone. Let’s cool down.

Andrew: All right. Guys, we nerded out for a long time on the science behind genetics and optimize triathlon training. So, to cool down today from all of that, let’s give the people a real quick training tip that they can immediately apply to their triathlon training. John, what’s a hot tip that you have for us today?

John: So, something that’s come up a couple times is really about optimizing your own potential. So, it’s utilizing this type of information as well as everything else we use within TriDot to optimize your own training results. So, that’s really what we can ambition to be is our best. So, focus on that, maximizing your own potential, and maximizing your own enjoyment of triathlon.

Andrew: That’s great stuff, John. Thanks for that. And Jeff, for you, you’re not only the fearless leader of TriDot, but you are also the original TriDot coach. So, what is a tip that you find yourself always giving to athletes?

Jeff: I have to say, it’s one of the things I mentioned right upfront about consistently doing the right things right, consistently doing the right training right. So, we often mention that as, you know, for the physical aspect, that that’s how you get the best physical results. But that has a mental aspect to it as well. So, that would be my tip to think about that, and don’t stress out over missing a workout. Don’t stress out on having a bad workout. We handle what the right training is, we’re going to optimize your training, don’t worry about that. Just worry about doing it right, the best you can, and consistency. And if you miss one, something doesn’t go right, just don’t sweat it. So, it’s very liberating and freeing, so don’t stress about that. You have enough stress from training, you don’t need the mental stress about anything else. So, just relax in that, be confident, and consistently do the right training right.

Andrew: Thanks for those real quick tips, guys. I appreciate that. My real quick tip that I’ll leave with the people is this: do not, under any circumstances, try a flying mount in a race unless you have practiced it. And if you practice it, practice it on grass, people. All right. That is my real quick training tip for you, real intelligent stuff. John, Jeff, thanks for that.

Well, that’s it for today, folks. I want to thank TriDot founder, Jeff Booher, and coach John Mayfield for walking us through all the ways genetic data can further optimize our triathlon training. Shout out to our friends at Garmin for partnering with us on today’s show. Remember to check out Garmin.com when looking for your next upgrade in tri tech. Enjoying the podcast? Have any triathlon questions or topics you’d like to hear us talk about? Head to TriDot.com/podcasts to let us know what you’re thinking. We’ll do it again soon. Until then, happy training.

Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot Podcast with your triathlon crew. For more great Tri content and community, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head to TriDot.com and start your free trial today. TriDot, the obvious and automatic choice for triathlon training.