That Triathlon Life Podcast - 100 mile ultra running races, triathlon strength routines, carbon wheels, foot plant, windy TT riding, and more!

Episode Date: September 1, 2022

This week we start out with a recap of a 100 mile ultra running race that Eric's sister competed in, then some Bike Tech with Eric about wheels and tires, and finally we move on to your questions about triathlon! We discuss the strength of carbon wheels, racing at altitude and how soon before the race you should be getting there, putting on wet wetsuits, and more! For gear, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hello everyone. Welcome to That Triathlon Life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Eric Loggersome. I'm Nick Goldston. We are here for episode 30-something. Eric and I are both professional triathletes. Nick is an amateur triathlet racing his first Iron Man in two weeks and a professional musician. The last few pods, I've been with Nick in Santa Monica. So now I'm back in Bend and Femm feels like these weeks just come by so fast. We are coming out with our women's shorts this Wednesday. So by the time this pod comes up, women's shorts will be up. New trail hats will be up. I know it's like really annoying that we're spacing stuff out. So if you want to buy a crew and shorts, you're like paying so much shipping. But we've tried

so hard to coordinate things and it's just been impossible this year with like delays and everything. So we apologize for the spacey releases. And it's like TTL makes money on the shipping. So that's not what's happening here. The shorts are so amazing. Like if you're a guy and you've liked the men's shorts. These are like the women's version. So they're shorter. They're like Lululamini. They're vorori-ish. They're super, super comfy. They're all I've been wearing. So go get a pair if you still have warm weather outside like we do. We all kind of wonder, I think, as amateurs, like, how much do the pros just like have this natural gift? Like, how much is of it is genetic? And Paula, both of your parents are like very accomplished athletes.

Eric, you just ran the last part of a 100-mile ultra race with your sister. So maybe there is something to that. There's something in the genetics. Because first of all, what happened? How did you get involved in this? And what did you do with it? I mean, my sister is very athletically talented. And she qualified for her professional license as a triathlete just before COVID hit.

And then she decided to switch to ultra running because of pools and all that. but I really think like this, what I was most impressed about with this 100 mile race was like the mental fortitude of it. And I don't know if that's genetic or if that runs in families or not. But that was what was so impressive to me about her hundred miles of running. Yeah, small backstories. Elise did a hundred mile race basically in Bend this past weekend. So she asked Eric if Eric would help to pace her for some of it. And if you don't know anything about 100 miles, because I sure didn't.

It takes about 24 hours, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the elevation gain. But I think there was about 12,000 feet of climbing. And it was a full family effort. Like Eric's parents were both here with the RV and had to drive to the aid stations and meet up with her with, you know, extra shoes, extra change of clothes, extra food. And there were many aid stations where there was no crew access and there was just aid station like general for everyone. and Eric, you can explain more, but I just wanted to give a bit of a backstory of what this 100 mile was.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so she started basically two miles from her house at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning and took off, going up trail, running up the mountain, and stuff I've done on my mountain bike a bunch of times, but I've never even ridden 100 miles on my mountain bike, so to give you an idea of the colossal nests of this activity. The first time that Paula and I saw her,

I think was around mile 50. We had, we woke up, she'd already gone and started. So two marathons in, basically, at this point. Yeah, two marathons in trail. That's crazy. And I think, like, 6,000 feet of climbing or so at that point. And so we'd, like, woken up and had breakfast

and gone and done a hard run and come back and had lunch and had done a hard bike ride. And just as we're finishing our hard bike ride, we realized that we might be able to see her at this 50-mile aid station. So we, like, got in the van and drove up there as quick as we could. and my parents texted me and said, oh, shoot, she's here.

And we were still about three minutes away. But luckily, the transition or the time that you spent at this aid station was long enough that we were able to stand there for probably about five minutes. The reason being this aid station was like pretty long is because she had this massive blister on one of her toes. And my dad was there having to like field dress it and try to help. And her hands were like not working very well. So he was doing it and she was getting pissed at him and he wasn't doing it properly.

And we showed up just in time to see her like afterwards so relieved that the blister situation was resolved and and cheer and do the whole thing. So she had it on again. And then the next time I think my parents saw her were like seven miles later. And then she had this big long stretch where nobody would see her until I came in to do my leg. At one a.m. Yeah. Oh, boy. Like somehow Eric got roped into doing the one a.m. to the finish.

Well, that's the epic one. That's the epic. I'll tell you the way. The way is that there were only two opportunities to be a pacer on this. You can only start pacing from 50 miles on. And this is so kind of like out in the backcountry of Ben that you can only come in basically like 45 miles to go or 18 miles to go. And that's space between 45 and 18 miles. That's like whatever, 30 miles or 27 miles.

And I didn't think there was any way that it would be smart for me to run 27 miles with her. 18 seemed a lot more reasonable. but that just necessitated that I start somewhere between 10 p.m. Right, right, right. And like 3 a.m., depending on how well the race was going. So me and my parents got in their RV and we drove out to sisters, which is the next town over, which is where she'd be finishing, and then drove up this dirt road and, like, went to sleep in the RV,

set an alarm for like the earliest we thought she would be there. And then at 1220 in the morning, we get a knock on the door, and someone's like, Elise is here, and I'm fully asleep. Wow. do not have running clothes on or anything. Oh shit, fire drill. She'd made up a whole bunch of time. Yeah, she'd made up like an hour and a half of time

from what we thought she would be based on watching her dot on Find Friends, comparing it to Strava, comparing it to Trail Forks maps. So we're like scrambling, trying to throw on clothes as fast as I can and everything. And then another knock of the door comes. And then she opens the door and it's just got this like, what is happening? Why are you guys asleep? I'm like trying to pin on a nice.

number and like eat a cookie and run out the door. But it was amazing because we really thought she was going to drop out around 65 miles in. This one aid station that's just so far back in the middle of nowhere. And after she had been sitting at that aid station, this is one where you see her dot on Find Friends. After she'd been sitting there for 20 minutes, I'd ended up texting her and said, hey, you know, like, I know you're back in there and I love what you're doing. But if you do need us to pick you up, like I can get there in our four-wheel drive.

Right. You know, I didn't want to, like, give her an out, but just, it would be kind of bad if she left that aid station, like, 10 miles to the next aid station. It's in the dark. Right. She was dizzy or something. Right. And she ended up being there for 45 minutes, but got her, like, nutrition thing that was going wrong figured out and had it on and made it freaking all the way to the end. It was amazing.

Imagine having 35 miles left running in a race and being like, oh, I think I'm done. and be like, no, no, I'm going to keep going for 35 more miles. That is so far. In the dark, in the pitch dark. There was not even a moon. This was a moonless night. Oh, my God. But I think that's where the stubbornness comes in.

Like, personally, I don't think I have that ability to suffer that long and be uncomfortable for that duration of time. I could do like a two to four hour suffer fest. But that is just like so far beyond what I'm ever willing to do. Yeah. Right. So it was super, super impressive. Yeah, 50 miles, she had this raging blister. I don't want.

It's like, when I feel blister. It's done. It's done. The day's done. Yeah. I'll make it a couple miles home if I have to. Yeah, exactly. Amazing.

I mean, a couple of people have asked if it's made me want to do an ultra at all. And that would be better. At this point anyway, after witnessing that, pretty much a hard no. Yeah. It was very, very impressive. So my leg, the 18 miles that we did or whatever, took about four hours. We ran, I would say probably 60% of it and like fast. Still running.

She was still running 60% of it that deep into it. Wow. Yeah. The last hour and a half probably was entirely walking with a couple little spurs. The thing was her stomach was so messed up from like jostling for that long. Yeah. She felt like she could run except for if she ran, she felt like she would throw up instantly. Right, right.

Like, I'm not joking. This is the fastest fast walk that I've ever seen at 3 a.m. in the morning. And so I was just, like, getting dropped and then, like, jogging slowly to catch back up and then, like, getting dropped because, like, I don't fast walk. Right. And everything was getting so sore from, like, trying to do this hike walk thing. Yeah, you're just not used to it. No, not at all. Go try to walk four hours fast sometimes.

Those are new muscles. Right. And how did she end up doing? She did, she did fantastically. So in that 45 minutes when she stopped at, like, mile 65, she was in third place. Five women went past her then. Oh. She caught, yeah, she caught all of them.

And so by the time that she picked me up, and then we passed two men in the next 45 minutes that were just like barely moving or keeled over on the side of the trail. And in the last three aid stations, like every five miles, we were bringing back almost 30 minutes on the girl who was in front of her, the next woman in second place. So I think she ended up finishing somewhere about 20 minutes behind second place. And the pity of the whole thing is she only won $250. Yeah, I know. That is. Like barely covers the entry fee. That's rough.

It should have been 200, at least 2,500. Yes, totally. Terrible hourly. Maybe TTL will donate some prize money next year for the 100 miles. That's right. But only for third place. The second and first they don't get it. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Funny enough, like, just to finish that off, most ultras don't have any prize money at all. So she was very fortunate that her first 100-mileer she won money at, because that may never, ever happen again in terms of, like, prize money for trends. Yeah. Wow. Amazing. Congratulations, Elise. And speaking of weird running things that have to do with mental effort, this last week on Wednesday I had these hard run intervals. It was like two minutes on, two minutes off that felt hard for me. And then the next day I had a bike workout and then a brick run off the bike. But the brick run was supposed to be 30 minutes easy. It just so happened that my friends were racing a 5K at a nearby track. So I went there just to kind of, I was just going to do my 30

minutes around the track there. But last second, I had the opportunity to actually race the 5K. And I did, and I couldn't believe that I was running faster than those two minutes on pace that I did before. I averaged faster than that, and it felt so much easier. And that was off the bike. It's just, it's amazing how much a race can make an effort feel so much easier. That's because it was a race. Yeah, I know, but it's, I could not, I would have never believed that that was possible with how hard it felt the day before. It's like, I feel like at least her being able to fight through 35 miles at the end of that. It's like, that is so much of that is mental.

Of course you got to do the training, but so much of that is mental. And she obviously just has that. Yeah, showing up at a race, like, I'm sure we've all experienced this where you set off on your race run and you're like, wow, this pace feels hard in training, but it doesn't feel hard right now. Yeah. It's the adrenaline. It seems impossible, but it really, it really works. Race day magic. I feel like that's why we all do it, even if we're not trying to win our age group, is just to have that extra little boost and motivation so you can really push yourself

on race day. Totally. Cool. Well, that's an awesome, awesome story. Eric and I purposely didn't talk to each other about it. And we just, so I heard that for the first time just now live on the pod. So next thing we're going to do is bike tech with Eric. Bike Tech with Eric.

So this weekend, I was on a long ride. And all of a sudden I just hear this like, kukkuk, and I'm like, oh, come on, bike, stop being dramatic. And I look back after stopping, and there is a gigantic screw going through my tire and out the other side, just barely like missing but kind of touching the rim of my carbon wheel. I got totally like no chance in saving it. It was way beyond anything that the sealant could fix. But it got me at thinking about a few things. So, Eric, when should we be replacing to?

tires. Like, if we're riding and it seals itself, like, do we have to go home and get a new set of tubeless tires? Well, the first answer is that you, Nick, needed to replace those tires about 10 years before you did. Yeah, those were not looking good. I got numerous comments on the Instagram story that I posted about, like, wow, one of those tires from 1999? Cracked and sun faded. They looked like they'd been sun tanning a little too much and not moisturizing. Yeah. Anytime you start to see little cracks in the rubber on your tire, like it looks like it's baked or just cracking a little bit. That is definitely a sign that your tires are done. You should be getting something new. And anytime that the center tread of the tire is starting to look a little flattened off, that would be a good indication of time to get a new tire. But with tubeless in particular, if it's still sealing and you don't see any of those things that I just mentioned, then you're fine. But you should probably check your sealant every once in a while to make sure it hasn't dried up or whatever.

How often do you think, Eric? Probably every, I don't know, like every three months. Like every three days. Eric's like, I check before every ride, of course. Put some in there for safe measure. For the most part, I think it's like every three months. I would check it. With the exception of if you're using a race sealant,

which is designed to coagulate faster, and that could go dry in as little as like two weeks. Yeah. Cool. Okay. So the next thing then would be, I got a little bit of this scratch on my, on my rim where the braking service is, but it seems like it's fine. But that got me thinking, when do we replace carbon wheels? Like, is there a thing that we know, like, when spokes start to go or like, is there something? Like once a year. Once a year. Yeah. Okay, good. I'll just sell all my things. Yeah, when all the new ones show up from Zip, that's when you replace the whole time. Correct. So there's, is there really anything?

Like, I, I haven't had a set of wheels that I've had to replace yet. No. The only thing would be, and this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with carbon, is just like, if you're breaking spokes a lot and, like, the wheel is coming out of true and stuff like that, then that could just potentially be a bad wheel. But typically, if you've, like, broken a couple spokes, you're just going to keep breaking more spokes, and the wheel is probably past its prime. Spokes are getting rusty, stuff like that.

like that and you kind of have to ask yourself, is it worth taking that rim and completely building it into a whole new spokes and hubs or just like calling it good. But as far as like the integrity of the carbon, that should be not an issue at all. Yeah, cool. Okay, so then moving on to questions, you can send your questions into that triathlon life brand at gmail.com. We're still getting all your questions. We love them. And we now get to be very selective with what we are reading on the podcast. and it's just the ones that we find are going to be relevant to this week. So this week, the first one is from Caitlin. Hey, Paul, Eric, Nick, and Flynn, woof, woof.

One, how strenuous should a strength routine be? So that's a good question, right? Because there's some people out there like Lindsay who lift heavy, and then some people will refuse to lift heavy as pro athletes. What do you guys feel like they're a healthy middle ground, or do you ever need to lift heavy? Do you need to lift a lot? Should you be sore the next day?

Yeah, I think there's definitely times. of the year where you should be lifting heavy, and in general, Eric and I don't really lift heavy. And I don't love the idea of, like, doing a gym session that's so hard that you are really sore the next day. Of course, that's signs that you've, like, worked muscles that maybe need some strengthening. But if it's going to impact your workouts the following day, it might have been too much. And I do think that, like, keeping some kind of regularity to your gym routine, you can gradually build up weight without increasing soreness because you just adapt to it as you're getting heavier and heavier. So the main reason why we'd ever get sore is if we don't

do gym for four weeks and then we go and do a bunch of heavy kettlebell stuff. That's when you're going to be the worst. So I think it has a time and a place and everyone's very different. We work with Aaron Carson from ECFIT and she kind of periodizes our strengths routine so that it's heavier in the offseason and then it's more maintenance, feeling good, mobility, having like, you know, making sure our tendons are healthy stuff like that in the race season because her philosophy is like, you guys don't need more exercise. We're not doing this gym session for exercise. It's so that you can be fast. So what does that look like at this point in the season where we're approaching some of our biggest races of the year? That's her philosophy. I remember even filming you guys for the PTO thing while

you guys are doing one of the strength workouts with her. And she had said something like, it's not about lifting hard, it's not about working hard, it's about activating these muscle and learning how to use them. And I was like, oh, that's interesting, right? Because we're so, like, swim bike run focused. And sometimes we forget that there's, like, these other muscles that you have access to that maybe you already have strength in.

You're just not using them properly. Yeah. And Eric in particular, well, you can talk about it. That philosophy has been, like, 100% dialed. I mean, right on for what I needed. As a result of, like, the hip, ongoing hip problem I have and kind of some, like, compensation patterns I've built up for that.

just her particular philosophy and style has just been perfect for me. And I would say, you know, it's like I'm getting 150% benefit out of it, whereas Paul is getting 75%. You know, it's just, like, for different people, need different things. And Aaron's pretty good at identifying that. Yeah, that's cool. We also like in the off, not in the off season, but in like early season, we'll do a lot of like sport specific strength with low RPMs to work on the bike, pulling with paddles, like hill sprints running. That's kind of built into the sessions, right? Yeah. Yeah. So we do more of that than we do of like power lifting. Yeah.

I will say I do feel like as I get older, like I might have to integrate more and more power stuff because I feel like that top end strength isn't just as like boom there every time I wanted as it was when I was 20. It was like you had it without even trying for it when you were 20. Exactly. So many things like that. It's not like you worked for it then or anything. Yeah.

And then. Aging athlete. Caitlin had another question. How important is a set recovery. routine. I'm blessed at both Therogun Pro and the Therogun foam roller. However, don't have a set routine. I'm really not too sure where to start with this. Yeah, I think it's having a routine for strength or for recovery is just too much scheduling. Like, there's enough scheduling that happens in your life. Don't make it too rigid. But if you're sitting in front of the TV, if you have

five minutes at night, do it. We don't like necessarily spend a ton of time on that kind of stuff. relaxing and have not much else to do or for on our laptops, then we'll put the Norma Tech boots on or something. For me, there are like three or four foam roller exercises that I, not exercises, but like ART, more than anything, like kind of pin and stretch

sort of things that I know if I do hit my adductors and I've hit my glutes and my pyrformis the night before I do a bike session where I need to like ride TT bike, arrow hard, I know that bike session will go a lot better if I do that. so it's not so much like a planned thing but it's just like an alarm goes off in my head when I see a TT session the next morning like go hit these things and that'll go so much better as a result. I think you just like yeah you can build that up over time just like pay attention when you do certain things.

Oh, I had a really good run after that and do that more. And how important do you think it is to like when you come back from a session, especially a hard one, to immediately like get into not working out mode? like shower, drink or whatever, couch. Just so it's like parasympathetic nervous system kind of like, now we are relaxing, we are not working out anymore. Or do you not really care so much about that? It's just kind of like,

if you're still a vibe and you then immediately start to work around the house or something like that. You just start to like edit photos instantly. In your bibs. You'll eat later, you'll shower later, but we need the footy. Edit it. Very nice, Paula.

I think if you keep your bibs on, then your body doesn't know the session's not over. Okay. You're really just getting a little extra session time. And then when you finish editing the photos or the video, then you do the shower and yeah, you get into parasympathetic as good as possible. So it's like I get an extra like 40 minutes of workout time

without actually having to pedal. Exactly. Psychologically, physically everything, you're still. I've been missing out. I've been missing out. Oh, it turns me so crazy. I'm like, we're going for the next workout and he's still in his bibs. I'm like, oh, no.

Oh, my God. Well, this is like if we've got two hours between sessions or something. You still shower. You still shower. Even if you have 10 minutes between sessions, just shower. If one of them is a pool, oh, you shower between, if you have a pool session and then two hours later you're running, you're showering between the pool and the run, Paula. No. Well, I've already said this on the pod before.

I watched my hair after every swim, so, yes. That's unbelievable to me. Okay. So does Lindsay. So does Heather. All girls shower after the pool. The pool is disgusting. Yeah, the pool is a shower.

You know what I'm doing that amount of time? I get out of the pool, I get on my phone, and I'm grinding. I'm doing work. I do a quick deck change and I'm out to the moped. I'm going to go. Not moisturizing. Paul is right. I just don't have the mental effort capable to shower.

Also, your pools in California don't have like a shower. No, we do. They're just in the indoor dressing rooms and I just can't be bothered to go in there. I'm walking out. Okay, next question. Thank you for your question, Caitlin. Yeah. Next question is from Christopher Cudworth.

Hi, their question for the podcast and TTL Nation, all caps with periods between each letter. I was watching a video of Paula training and noticed her foot plant was a heel strike. Then while watching her race in the Collins Cup, it was all four foot. I've been a runner for 50 years. He mentions his times, one of which is a 1445, 5K, which is extremely fast, and have always used a combination of foot strikes for different rates for training and racing. Do you concentrate on footplant or do you just let it happen naturally? And what advice might you have for age groupers on foot plant strategies? Christopher Cutworth. A hundred percent don't think about it at all. Zero percent of the time, really?

No, never thinking about my foot strike. Although I do think about my, actually I don't think about my cadence either, but interestingly, when I was injured and running on the lever a lot or the lever, which I love, it's a great tool. My cadence was getting super slow. Like for some reason that bouncy effect of like being kind of suspended really made my steps per minute drop. And my coach noticed that when I raced after running primarily on the lever. So I did do like a little focus this year of just making sure my cadence was a bit higher. Naturally in runs my cadence will be between like 170 to 180 steps per minute, even on an easy run. But that really doesn't have much to do with like foot plant. I think when I'm running faster, I'll be up on my toes more, when I'm running slower,

more of heel, midfoot, but it's not something I consciously think of really. Speaking of which, if you guys watch the Bergen World Cup this weekend, the female winner, if you can find a clip of it, she was like on her toes, like the craziest toe strike I've ever seen just like fully bouncing off her tippy toes the whole way. And she won. She was like such a fast runner and she's only 18. I saw that. It just goes to show that like any foot foot. But strike works for any person. And I think generally maybe age groupers are a little more heel-strikey because they're running like longer races or a little bit slower pace.

But there's definitely a place for like getting up on your toes and feeling like you're like running fast, you know? Yeah, I think there's just so much negative press around heel-striking. And so, but I don't know how much of that is really true. I feel like each person that has their own thing. It's just a marketing thing. Richard Murray, one of the fastest runners ever in ITU, heel strike. Yeah.

Lionel, heel strikes, maybe? Lionel heel strikes, oh, for sure. Lionel heal strikes. Daniela, heel strikes. We're talking about these are some of the fastest people in the sport. There's a lot about injury there, too. People think you'll get injured more often if you heal strike. And I don't know.

It seems like a lot of things in the sport are like, same with cadence, same with on the bike, same with cadence on the run, same with your foot plan. it's like your body kind of naturally wants to do one of these things. Yeah. Fighting it is not a great idea. Fighting it can sometimes be worse unless you have this like holistic approach to it. So interesting to know that you don't think about it, Paula. I think that paying attention to maybe increasing your cadence could be a good thing.

The shoes that you're wearing will make an impact on that. If you're wearing like carbon shoes that have a big role to them where you're kind of like feel like you're falling forward almost. That's the feeling that we all have with carbon shoes, then that might change your foot strike. as well versus wearing like a really cushy everyday training shoe. I do like my coaches, Coach Paulo's strategy with this and it's just like go run and then run these paces that you need to run and do this and like your body will figure it out. If we told you Nick you had to go run four minutes per mile, like you might not be able to do it for more than 30 seconds, but I think your body, your foot strike would just get into the

place that it needs to get into to go that fast. Yeah. Like on its own. It would figure it out. Yeah, of course. Nobody tells kids how to foot strike, yet they all have beautiful strides. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

That's a great point. Well, there you go, Christopher. She does not think about it. She's just fast. She just shows up on race day and wins. Well, this guy's fast, too. I shouldn't be giving him advice. Well, no, it's just an interesting topic because I thought about a lot when I first got

injured about how I should be striking. But I ended up just increasing my cadence, which automatically made me more of a midfoot-four-foot-foot striker because you just didn't have a choice. Anyway, next question is from Grant, very simple. What's up, friends? I have one question, one question only. Why does Paula run in Nike's? Thank you so much for your time. You guys rock and I love you. How is it, how did he, what is the voice that he asked us in? Like, why does Paula run in Nike's? Or, no. Why does Paula run in Nike? You know what? It has three question marked after the Nike's. Wow, that's aggressive. I think the, I don't know how much you guys are

wear of this, but like for the, on the street, Nike's are good if you are wearing their race shoes. And the stuff that isn't the race shoes can be sometimes hit or miss compared to other running shoe brands. But there's a lot of great trainer Nike training shoes too. But Paula, why do you wear them? Okay. So first and foremost, I run a Nike's because I'm like a lifelong Nike person. I was sponsored by them. In 2011, they were like my first big sponsor with like a real salary that felt legitimate.

it was at the time. And they stayed with me all through my ITU career. So I'm really good friends with the sport marketing guy in Canada. I'm super, I don't know, I just really like their shoes a lot. And I've experimented with other shoes since I am not sponsored by them anymore. And I have the freedom to run and whatever I feel like. And I've always kind of gravitated back to the Nikes. I really like the zoom fly for tempos and the Infinity React for easy runs. And I went through a little phase of like trying out Sokony, trying out other things. And my ankle injury kind of just lingered. And when I switched back to the Nike that I'd been wearing forever, it's better now.

And that's not all because of the shoes. But it's just don't, if it's not broke, don't change it kind of thing. And in terms of race shoes, I started wearing the A6 only because they really made my ankle feel better than the Nike. And that's not like anything against Nike. It's just, I think the stability of the A6 shoe is a little bit wider. It's fast. It's just totally a personal preference feel thing. But I do still think the Nikes are the fastest race shoe.

They just don't work as well for my feet. Yeah. So that's why. Great. Well, next question is Jason from FT6. I'm guessing that's a team somewhere. Good morning. Been listening since the beginning.

And I really look forward to Thursdays for the pod to drop. Question for Eric. I recently got full carbon wheels on my rim brake tri-bike, and while descending a hill recently, I got me thinking about this. I like to take care of my equipment and make sure everything is properly used and maintain. With carbon being much different than aluminum,

I know you have to be easier, in quotes, on the brakes with full carbon, but when riding a long descent, is it better to keep constant but lighter pressure on the brakes or harder but shorter pulses on the brakes? I want to have my wheels last as long as possible. I eventually plan to get the disc brake tri-bike,

but for the time being, I love my rim brake bike as it is a rocket ship. Please keep doing what you're doing, Jason. So what do you think, Eric? What's going on here? You do not have to worry about your carbon brakes at all. I've had, I have ruined aluminum brakes with braking in bad conditions and stuff

and had to throw away a pair of aluminum brake track wheels, but I've never had a problem with carbon brakes. It's just, I think that's just kind of a little bit of an older myth and something that we don't really have to worry about these days. And they should last you years and years. That being said, do not just drag your brakes down a 20-minute descent at all. Doesn't matter what you're doing. Yeah, you don't need to pulse them like every half second,

but I would, you know, for the most part, like even when I'm descending like on a mountain bike with disc brakes, I'll hold on to them for 10 seconds at the most. If I can help it, give them like even two seconds of rest will shed a lot of heat before you get back on it. It's almost like just pulsing them off occasionally if you're doing a lot of consistent heavy braking.

Otherwise, just break less. Go faster. Yeah, why are you breaking? Are you trying to win? The only exception maybe to that, Eric can correct me if I'm wrong, but all new wheels are manufactured from reputable manufacturers are designed with like,

they've done the research and they know what materials to put where, and that's why you can break without thinking about it. too much, just like anything else. But if you buy a like $100 set of carbon wheels off of like from China, from some obscure, the... Alibaba wheels. Yeah, Ali, exactly. Your results may vary with those. Yeah, I would definitely take it easy on those. Yeah. In all, in all scopes.

Yeah, maybe just don't. But yeah, but all new wheels are manufactured, so you don't have to worry about that too much. We're a long way into carbon wheel technology now, and testing is very strenuous and everything, so I'm very confident. Yeah, fine. Cool. Well, hopefully that helps out, Jason. Next question is from Rich. Good morning. T.T.L. Nash, a bunch of Y's, bunch of S's, bunch of H's. As I've likely just upset, Eric, I will counter that by giving my first thank you to him as those men's shorts are basically the only shorts I wear as I'm walking my dog fudge. What a great dog name. Around the neighborhood every day. Just so comfy. Come on, fudge. Yeah, fudge is great. Eric never takes his off either. He's wearing them right now.

There you go. He also said he spilled some tomato sauce on there, but hopefully it'll come out. Now the question, you've talked before about how important shoes and pedals are, but what's your preference and why between a tri-specific shoe versus a road shoe, Rich? Try-specific shoes are so hard. Oh, Flynn's giving his advice. What do you think? Just for the road shoes.

Flynn's complaining. Just wear the road shoes. The tri-specific shoes are only for doing Super League or ITU. Honestly, like, they're so uncomfortable compared to road shoes, and you can easily get in to road shoes with a boa in a 70.3. I did it in the Collins Cup. Yeah. Eric doesn't.

I just think tri-shoes are, like, super important if you're trying to make a pack in ITU or at the Olympic Games. Yeah, it's like, even if you're doing Olympic, racing, like non-draft Olympic racing, it seems like you're not trying to make a pack, so comfort should be number one. Yeah, it only takes me a few extra seconds to get into them. I mean, if you find the tri-shoes more comfortable, then that's fine. Yeah, Eric does wear tri-shoes. I mean, I wear my tri-shoes and for everything, just because I kind of want my feet and body to get used to exactly what those are. That is not allowed.

I know. I know you're not a big fan of that. The only thing that is not allowed is wearing your tri-shoes frequently. For training. in training and definitely, definitely not on a road bike. Right, which is what I do. 100% not allowed. But yeah, for me anyway, I just, I do have a pair of tri-shoes, the Shimano tri-shoes that I do really like that feel good and the strap is wide and it feels like my foot's closed in well.

So I will, I'll use those. But like when I do Xtera, I use a mountain bike shoe with Boa, get into it, no problem. And yeah, so just like go with what's comfortable. but typically a road shoe is going to have a lot better retention holding under your foot with the boas and everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Well, thank you for that question. Rich. Next one is from Van. Hey, all, really enjoy your podcast, lots of fun. I will too be at Iron Man, Wisconsin, which is the race that I'm doing. My third time there, but first full Iron Man since 2019. Disc wheel question about the first and last 20K are relatively flat, but lots of short, punchy hills on the two times. 70K-ish loops.

You all think a rear disc is a way to go, or maybe a rear 90-millimeter thanks. Appreciate all you add to the sport. So first of all, let me just say that coincidentally, a couple months ago, a podcast listener messaged me on Instagram and told me we had a similar discussion about this in the past. And he told me that he got second overall in the race when he did it last year, and he ran a disc. And then what he said to me, though, was his name was Benjamin Stone. I did the race last year and finished second. I only had a rear disc wheel, so I used that. If I had a deep section

rear wheel, I would have chosen to use that instead. The bike constantly up and down with very little flat and long, fast downhills where the disc is measurably better. For I'm in Wisconsin, specifically, I would save the money and the weight and not use a cover or disc wheel. So I don't know if that's great advice, but coming from someone who got second, I found that interesting to hear his perspective on that. Because I think the research is like, the disc is always faster, right? 100%. Yeah. You can still win or come second without a disc, because ultimately it's the rider. Yeah. But there's no question at all that the disc is faster. So whether that's worth the $5,000 or whatever it costs.

I don't know, that's up for you to decide, but it's like un- unquestionably... Unquestionably faster. Unquestionably faster. Yeah. I couldn't believe he said that if he had a deep section wheel, he would have ran that instead.

Because the question is like, is it worth spending the money for the thing that is clearly faster? Yes. Right? So interesting. So yeah, disc wheel always, right? Unless it's like a hill climb.

The only, yeah. If you're doing like, what is that thing that Sam Wong did, the Alpdouz track on? The Alpduez, yeah, where you start at the bottom and you end at the top. Yeah. That would be a good use case for like the 454, a 40 millimeter deep, lightest wheel you can get. Right. And I ran the 858s, the 80 millimeter deep wheels front and rear at Alcatraz, and that was, but that was more so, like that is crazy how steep up and down that is. And also they had that wider brake track that allowed me to run 60 PSI and have a very comfortable ride on smoothed road.

So it had more to do with that necessarily than aeronics of the disc. There you go. There's your answer. Next question is from Robin. Hi, this is a question for Eric to consider for the podcast. Thank you for the YouTube and podcast content. I would love to hear how Eric gets all the shots from a drone. So often it looks like the drone is programmed to follow you on a bike,

which seems like your hands would not be on the controls. I love all aspects of your videos, but those shots are especially lovely. Robin from Santa Monica. Geez, we got a TTL nature right here in my hometown. I just walked over and asked Nick. I know. So, Eric, what's the deal? Because sometimes it does seem like, is Paula flying the drone?

Is she a secret drone star? I wish. Dron star? Yeah, drone star. Is that like a spin on porn star? No, but now I like that. Yeah. No, I don't touch those things.

And we have like 7 million of them, so we're not getting anymore. They all do different things, babe. Oh, wow. We also have seven different ceiling fans, but yeah, you want to get a different one. Yeah. Oh, wow. They all look different. There you go.

They do different things. They do different things. Yeah. I looked at Eric and Nick were just like looking at drones on the internet, texting each other about drones. Who are you talking to? Nick, what are you talking about drones? And I had to text Nick and say, stop talking to Eric about drones. he doesn't need another drone.

He's becoming obsessed with this new drone. You should also text Talbot because Eric and Talbot and I also have a group chat pretty much all about drones that goes off every day. And this is most hysterical because drone shots make up, what, 3% of our total videos, but yet we're boys and his little airplane that you fly. With a camera on it. Yeah. Also, I don't think we should disclose how Eric gets his drone shots.

Yeah, you can feel free to be as private as you want. about this, Eric. I'm just reading the question. I can fly a drone while I ride my bike. Yes. But the best drone shots that I get are me filming Paula while she's riding. And that's just ace pilot ship. Eric planted with his feet on the ground with a controller in his hand is always going to get the best footage. Yep. It's just practice, right?

Yeah. Lots of practice. It's practice. And also, like, you have to know what looks good, I think, because you can, like, if someone tells you what to do, that can be great. but having the idea of, oh, I'll go this way, and then the camera will slowly pin up while I'm passing her on the side. It's hard to do that, but it's also an idea that you have to have in your head.

Totally. And I think sometimes when we're watching other YouTube channels of someone that's flying a drone, Eric will be like, oh, shouldn't have done that? Shouldn't it on that? Shouldn't it on that? Should it on that better? Oh, that's the biggest. No, no.

So maybe that's my pro tip of drone flying as someone who's never flown one. It's just be smoother. It's smooth. Totally. And that's even an editing thing. Just don't use the clips where it's dirty. You know, like try to cut between those spots. Totally.

That's what I do. Paul, great advice. She really is a drone star. Put that on your Instagram bio. Okay. Next question is from Samantha. She's from San Francisco Bay Area. First, this might sound a little gross, but I'd really appreciate your advice.

Oh, no. This is real. This is real stuff right here. How do you make sure you go to the bathroom before a race? I've had stomach pain and digestive discomfort during multiple races because I haven't found a good solution for this. Races start so early in the morning and I always eat breakfast and drink water beforehand, but I still haven't figured this out. Coffee.

Just pound coffee. For me, I'm so anxiety-ridden that I don't have to worry about this. My body's like, I get it all out. Yeah. I know. I know for me, I truly think it's like the coffee, even in like, a regular day if you wake up, have coffee

predictably, get enough to go to the bathroom in 30 minutes, you know? Typically we do have our pre-race breakfast three hours before. I thought he was going to say free race poop. We have our pre- food. Two hours. But yeah, three hours out, eat food.

Yeah, maybe part of the problem Samantha's having is that she's eating like an hour before the race or something like that. Yeah, my personal window for like daily life is an hour and a half. If I eat an hour and a half, If I eat an hour and a half, like, just as I'm getting to the swimming pool, I'm ready. Any closer than that? And it's bad news.

It depends on what you eat, too, right? Like, if it's, like, toast and peanut butter, that's different than, like, a breakfast burrito or something. Not necessarily, because, like, what you're clearing out is from the day before, isn't it? Oh, I guess that's true. But I find there, I don't know. I guess I do find there is a difference. It's like, it just slows my whole body down when I eat something that's, like, heavy,

like a breakfast breeder or something. Yeah. But, yeah. My tip of her would just get way more nervous, get way more anxious, and wake up a little earlier and have a couple coffee. That's a real polyphony advice right there. Get extremely nervous because that's what she does. You can, last thing I'll just say, you can try experimenting the night before with like a very low fiber diet, like rice and eggs. Yeah.

And they just don't have, there's nothing to work with there. Yeah. Even, I feel like the whole day before, it's like don't go crazy with the fiber. Do whatever it takes if it's impacting your performance that much. And second, I recently got my first TT bike and I'm excited to ride it in my upcoming races. However, I recently took it out for a practice ride and it was so windy outside that I was wobbling and terrified I would fall over. Oh my gosh, this question is for me. I'll just go, I'm just going to go get a soda.

I have felt this too where I'm just like, it's a little sketchy on PCH here where you have these buildings that are all next to each other between you and the ocean. and then like a 40-foot gap where there's an alley and these big wind gusts come out of those gaps sometimes and it just like shakes you over. But Paula, do you have any... She doesn't have a disc wheel, but she does have like arrow wheels and obviously the frame is arrow,

so it has those big tube shapes. Yeah. Is there anything that you've done to help yourself out? Oh, I hate it. It's my least favorite thing about triathlon is riding a TT bike and like crosswinds and I'm not good at it. And the only way I get

better at it. And I've actually found, like, even this year, I've gotten way better. Like, it was pretty windy the other day when we did our ride with Heather. And I was like, in my bar, I was not nervous. And that's truly just because I've been riding it a lot. And if I come off of a stint of, like, bad weather, if I'm on the trainer a lot, and then I go outside to ride or to race, that's when it's the worst. So I think you just need to learn to, like, trust your bike. It's not going to blow over. It wants to go straight. These are things I tell myself, but I totally understand the nerves and the anxiety around it. And my instinct, when I do get a crosswind hitting me or even like a really extreme headwind is to sit up and

break. And I think that's the, you know, instinctual response, but the better response is just to stay arrow, because that's going to be the most stable. And sitting up isn't necessarily going to help with anything. Although your gut wants you to like stop and slow down, it's better just to kind of go, keep moving forward, keep putting pressure on your pedals, and your bike knows what to do. So that's kind of the tricks I've told myself. and then ultimately it's just about riding that bike more often. And if you have a road bike and a TT bike, when you have a race coming up, just ride the TT bike only and you'll be more comfortable. I feel like I could talk about this for 20 minutes.

I mean, I think this is, I've thought this before, and I'm definitely on the better bike handler side of most triathletes. So I'm curious, you know, anything else that you think you have, that if you can think back in your mind of like how you've progressed to this point. from being someone who was definitely more fearful of it at first and now more comfortable with it. Well, for example, Challenge Daytona 2020. We'd been training in Canmore exclusively on the trainer. We got to the track for like a couple days of pre-riding the track.

And I literally couldn't even do a full lap of the course in Arrow because I was so scared of the wind. I was like almost crying, couldn't ride Arrow. I had to race in two days. And I was freaking terrified on my TT bike. And like, this is stuff you obviously don't see. in our vlog in real life, whatever. It just looks like we're all so comfortable and perfect and pro at riding these bikes. And most people are, but I'm like the exception.

So I got Eric to like move my pads on my bars further out. I was like adjusting my position just so I could feel more stable. And three days later, I go and win the race with like the fastest bike split. All arrow, obviously, in the wind. And so I think that for someone who's nervous in training and there is this mental switch, like we talked about earlier, when you're racing, that just kind of takes that away a little bit, at least for me. I feel like it would be the same for other people. But when you're in a race, there's something on the line. You're not thinking as much about the elements and about being nervous.

You're thinking about winning the race. So keep that in mind, too, if you're nervous, even in the days leading into a race, it's probably going to be okay on race day and have that confidence and don't think about it as much when you're in the race. I think not having cars there to make the wind less scary. Totally. Yeah. because half of my fear when there's wind and stuff is like, oh my gosh, I'm going to get blown into traffic. And take that element away and it's way better. But I mean, in Daytona, there was no traffic and I was still terrified. So, Eric, do you think it's crazy to say that, like, the fact that Paula's arms got wider, that you took her elbows out a bit just to give her a little more stability?

Maybe. In my opinion, that had nothing to do with it. It was a mental thing. It was Paula not being able to just think, oh my gosh, it's windy. Oh, my gosh, it's windy. Oh, am I going to blow over? I think am I blow over? Is Eric blowing over?

What's that flag doing? She was just win race. Win race. Right, right, right. I'm not like that anymore. I'm not like tinkering with my position the day before. I'm a professional TT rider now. You're locked in.

I allowed the handlebar change up thing just because like if that was the thing that made her think, you know, whatever. This was a mental situation. that we just needed to get the freak out ended. It also confirmed that it doesn't really matter. I feel like a millimeter wider or whatever. Yeah. Oh, right. Well, because you ended up winning, you're saying?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe if it was a millimeter narrower, you would have won by more. Or less. Who knows? I mean, we don't have that information. Might have blown over to her death. That's right.

Who knows? It could have all ended right there. But yeah, so Samantha, the Paula's tip and Eric's two is Ride More. and worry about it less if you can. Obviously, that's easier said than done. And by the Shiv TT, it is so stable. It is like, oh my gosh, I fucking love that bike. You think the Shiv TT is more stable than the Shiv Tri?

I don't know, but I love it so much. Every time I finish a ride, I'm just like, I love you. Well, the Try does have bigger tube shape, so it catches the wind more. No matter what, flat course, windy course, no wind. I'll always choose a four or five four on the front. The 8-5-8s are faster. they're better, but they just make me feel a little too twitchy. And I would say like, if you're comfortable on your bike, always go for the 8-5-8 on a flat course.

Eric always does. But personally, just to take all of that fear away in doubt, I just go with the 454. On the front with the distance on the line. I'm talking about two different wheels with two different depths. And the deeper wheel is faster, but it will catch the wind more. So it's going to exaggerate that feeling of being a little scared in the wind. Yeah. Okay, great.

Well, next question is from Kyle Miller. Hey, guys, so next year I plan on doing my first 70.3, and the only one that fits my schedule is 70.3 Boulder, I currently live in Missouri, which is at zero altitude. Should I, A, go up a week early and explore Colorado a little bit and slightly adjust to the altitude, then race after being there for five to six days. Eric is shaking his head like a madman. Or, B, go up one day before race immediately, then take the next week to explore and relax. And now he is nodding his head, yes, like a madman.

So, Eric, I have no idea what you're going to say, but could you weigh in on what you think this, what Kyle should do? Yeah, I don't know the exact timeline, but it's something like 12 days or something out that you want to go if you're going to try to do the before altitude to get over your body, being confused about it, or just go in last possible second. We've had great races off of that. Yeah, he even said,

I've heard that only going up for a week in racing is, worse than just going up to altitude and racing immediately. I'll definitely be doing some poor man's altitude training in the heat leading up to it. So yeah, day before is probably better and then do the exploring after. That way you also have that race under your belt and you feel the sense of accomplishment as you're exploring gorgeous

Colorado. Arriving to the race the day before is a little scary. Just as late as you can. Because like what if your bike gets lost? What if, whatever? Yeah. Yeah, that's true. A few days before. Just don't. Just don't do it like four, five, six in that window because that's a perfect amount of time.

for you to just be tired. You could conceivably drive from Missouri to Colorado without too much of a problem, though. I wonder if Kyle's going to drive. But still, getting there two days before is just so much better. Yeah. Yeah.

It's not like there's anything to do in Boulder anyway, so it's fine. He's kidding. He's kidding, everybody. For the 90% of our listeners who live in Boulder, basically. All the triathletes. Okay, next question is from Andrew

in College Station, Texas. Hey Paula, Eric, Nick, and Flynn, when you're traveling domestically in the U.S. or Canada, or especially internationally, to things like the Collins Cup, how do you make sure your regular meals are still what you need them to be? Do you all like to do research beforehand? Like, we'll hit the Olive Garden in St. George the night before the race? Or have you arrived at the Collins Cup cafeteria and been like, I'm not eating this and start searching for Bratislava suburbs for aforementioned Olive Garden? Do you all have some favorite slash reliable places? that you can bank on finding wherever you travel. Thanks again. Keep the good stuff coming. Andrew. Yeah, that's a good question. And I think it's good to be fairly gut flexible because as we're traveling,

you don't really have control over that stuff when you're traveling outside of the U.S. In the U.S., we really like Chipotle. Some people might say that's not good because of the beans and the fiber, but we just go like white rice, guacamole, a couple of beans, the heat of veggies, and it's like very consistent.

So we've won plenty of races off of Chappole. polo the night before. So we kind of stick with that. In terms of the Collins Cup, it was like a cafeteria style. They had tons of rice, tons of pasta. It was pretty recognizable food that we'd been eating all week. So it wasn't a problem. But I would say the only thing we like stay away from is something that's like very unique and different or like crazy spices or something like probably wouldn't go have Indian food the night before the race. And if we can if we can swing it, we'll try to at an Airbnb that has a kitchen. So we're just cooking our own pasta and chicken and having a little more control that way. But like I said, Chipotle is a good fallback. Or if you're at a race,

like three days early, maybe go to a restaurant two days before and see if you can find something there you like and it's easy on your stomach for the night before the race. I know Jackie Herring actually has pizza the night before the race every time. So I don't know if you're like, pizza is pretty standard. For ITU, we'd do that all the time. Yeah, that's interesting. I can attest that both of you, like you Paul, you used the term gut flexible. Both of you kind of, you're not that picky with what you're eating like the day before the race. You're kind of just making sure you're fueled and you're feeling good and you're happy and you're relaxed. Yeah.

And most importantly, drinking a lot too the day before. I think the bigger mistake would be to not eat enough because you're being picky and then you're like tired and low energy on race day. Totally. Good point. Cool. Well, that was a question from Andrew. Thank you, Andrew. Last question here from Jen.

I have a quick question about course recon before race day. Often I am scheduled to swim the course one day prior to the race. I have found myself reticent to do so because my wetsuit will not be dry enough come race morning. Have you ever tried putting on a wet wetsuit? The energy expenditure alone would ruin my race day. Yeah, exactly. Do you travel with two wetsuits, one for pre-race practice and one for race day? Thank you for all you do.

And a huge congrats to you both on an epic 2022 race season thus far, Jen. traveling with two different wetsuits Never travel with two wetsuits Even traveling of one is super annoying I don't even have two wetsuits I do have two wetsuits But I pretty much just use one Until it's toast

Yeah We've never had a situation Where a wetsuit hasn't dried Between the pre-race swim And the race day, have you? The one exception would be Like a super humid location But even then like hang it outside in the sun

And I feel like it dries dry enough. Even if it's a little damp, it'll go on, fine. Yeah, I would say a good tip would be, obviously, you probably do this already, is to dry it hanging inside out so that the neoprene's actually drying and hang it in direct sunlight if you're concerned about it not drying quickly. I don't know. Yeah. Or I don't think it's that important to get.

I think getting in the actual race water before the race is sometimes overrated. Like if it's really going to stress you out, you don't need to swim in the wet suit in the water the day before. or just go to the pool, don't swim. We've done all the above, and we've ended up totally okay. Yeah, we'll only do the racewater swim if that's, like, cool, like it's the ocean, or if it's way more convenient than getting to the pool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it actually is good to try the ocean just because of the wave element.

But before the Collins Cup, I didn't get in the water a single time. Just, like, there's always, like, water quality concerns as well, that it ended up not being a problem there. But if it's in a lake or somewhere where it's warm or, like, I know the Boulder Reservoir me have had some issues. Just stay out of it till race day, I would say in general. This is assuming that you get to swim in your wetsuit in training occasionally. Right. If you almost never do. If you haven't done it yet, maybe it's good to go pre-race, make sure it fits. But even then, you could always practice in your wetsuit in the pool

leading into the race as well. We've done that. Like do a thousand in the wetsuit, take it off. Keep going. My friend, Shaniel, who's actually a podcast listener and lives like down the street here, He just did that at our pool. And I just feel like I would do it too. I just feel like I haven't seen anyone in a wetsuit at that pool. And I know it would be just a little bit like embarrassing to show up and be like, who's this guy in a wet suit? No.

Not if you do a really fantastic removal of it at, you know, like taking it off super fast. Look, that guy, he's serious about what he's doing. Yeah. I don't like it's embarrassing at all. I mean, we all wear a gear that says that triathlon life on it. I don't know what we are. Oh, gosh. God, it's so true. It's so true. Oh, him again. Oh, God.

Well, the question that I had was, me personally, was what would you then do if your wetsuit is wet? Are the things you can do to get it on easier? Like, are there any, like, pro-triathlete moves here? Yeah, if it's a little damp, it's just like, you're going to be able to put it on. Just leave a little more time. If it's soaking, I've never tried to put a soaking wet wet seat on. For me, what I learned from surfing is you put a plastic bag over your feet

at one at a time and that just slides through so much faster and then you just take it off, put it on your other foot, put it on your arms. Eric's, Eric does not seem pleased with that answer. No, I'm just sorry. I was just like, well, yes, of course, obviously. Right. Well, of course for you,

that of course for all our listeners. To be clear, that is not the pro-trappleet move. That is just a good, that is a general general thing you can do. Guys, look out for the that Triathlon and Life branded plastic bag that we will be so soon. Specifically for this purpose.

If I see somebody putting on a wetsuit with a plastic bag, I'm not like, ooh, watch out for this person. They're about to blow us out of the water. Oh, God. Fruit. What a great trick. It does work. Yeah, it works.

I love it. You guys are relatively, like, very fast at putting on your wetsuits. I don't know if just because they've like stretched out to your bodies a little bit but I feel like for me and like when I'm with people it just takes me so long it's so annoying I will say that like when I don't go work

well you live in California and chances are you're probably a little sweaty when you're putting on the wetsuit and that is the kiss of death you're right you're right will stop me from open water swimming if I'm sweaty getting ready to put on a wetsuit I'll just like no it's like Velcro basically

I do think that there's like this myth that the wetsuit has to be really freaking tight like when I was first buying a wetsuit in my early early dry days, like when I was 16, they're like, oh, it should feel so tight. You can barely put it on and barely zip it up. That is not true, because when it's too tight, you can't breathe. I feel like your wetsuit should be tight enough that it's not like gushing water in the neck, but loose enough that you actually can put it on fairly easily and have some mobility in your shoulders. Like, don't buy a size smaller than what you're

supposed to buy. I've noticed that with both of you, both of your wetsuits, they go on easy and they zip up easy for you. Whereas like when I bought mine, I still was thinking that it had to be super tight and it's really hard for me to get it on, to get mobility in my shoulders, and to zip it up. Yeah. It's such a myth. I don't understand the thought. It maybe comes from a swimming thing where you're like, oh, my race suit has to be as tight as it can be. Yeah, right. A little bit. And it's like the carbon wheel braking thing. I think early wet suits, like, were not that well designed versus like our blue 70 suits now. The arm cuff around your hand is paper thin. No water's getting in there. So it doesn't need to be like tighter than a, you know, than a tourniquet.

It's right, right, right. That's true. That's true. Wetsuits have developed so much. Good point. Awesome. Because I need all the help I can get personally. What kind of wetsuit do you have, Nick?

I have a Roka wetsuit that I bought years ago. I need to upgrade to Blue 70 for sure. Yeah, yeah, for sure you do. We'll put in the request. I'll put it in a request. Yeah, thank you. I'm like sponsored but not sponsored. at this point. It's great.

You're just going along on the ride. Oh, also Nick, coming into sponsored Nick, Kristen Mayer, who designed my race kit, and we talked about her a couple of podcasts ago, she was like, let me know if Nick ever wants a special suit design. Oh, my gosh. Maybe that would be cool, a TTL Nick suit. I feel so bad because there's so many pros who deserve free stuff, and I feel like I'm kind of getting a little bit of this.

free stuff, even though I'm so far from it. What does deserve mean? What does deserve mean? I mean, you put in hours a week editing and curating our podcast. You're like, you're, you, you work hard and you train and you have a job. And also, Nick, um, you also just cracked a thousand Strava followers, which only a few pro triathletes in Flynn can do. So. Very nice. Flynn versus Nick, Strava follower contest. Here we go. actually like this might be. Flynn is way ahead.

This might be too much info, but I was like, Nick, you're really getting Strava famous. And he sent me screenshots of like seven pro triathletes that have less followers than him. Well, Eric was the one who told me about it. At first, he's like, you might be surprised at how many Strava follower or some of these other pros have. And these are like pros that I know of, like by name. It's not like I had to search like random people that have their pro card or something like that. This is what I'm saying, though. You're putting in the work, man.

your like eloquent novel Strava post with edited pictures. Yeah, well, I try to keep it entertaining. Yeah. Man, like that is entertainment. Oh, speaking of which, the marketing, senior marketing director at Strava just followed me on Strava today. What? Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

And he also followed me on Instagram. Can we get some sponsors? He follows both of you as well. Okay, well, Nick, you know, I'm going to start, I'm going to start, I'm going to start getting real annoyed if you start getting sponsors that we don't get. Well, no, that's my goal. Just kidding Yeah, so the questions we had I hope you guys enjoyed it

Paul, Eric, any final thoughts? I enjoyed it. I had a great time. Yeah, it was super fun. Thanks so much for the questions And that is it. Sick. See you next week.

Bye, folks. Ciao, chow. Bye.