That Triathlon Life Podcast - 2026 Triathlon goals, snacks, dry land swim exercises, and more!

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

This week the band is back together in Bend, Oregon recording episode 199. We kicked things off with some holiday recaps, talked through a few 2026 goals, played a New Year–themed Shred or Bed, and then dove into listener-submitted questions. This week we discussed:Snacks and breakfast ideas for triathletesHow Eric, Paula, and Nick became friendsIntentionally training in triathlon race orderKeeping the excitement alive and not normalizing or downplaying our accomplishmentsThe best dry-land exercises for athletes who don’t have access to a poolHow to nurture a love for triathlon in young childrenA big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey everyone. What's going on? Welcome to That Triathlon Life podcast. We're back. 2026, baby. You're, this is going to be kind of a, I don't know, this is going to be a little bit different because we've had some much needed rest and recovery after pretty intense last year. We'll get you caught up on everything that has been going on. If you're new here, Paul and I are both professional athletes. Nick is a professional musician, amateur athlete, and our sport of choice is triathlon. We didn't even mention our names at the start. Did we not?

You're right. We didn't go through the roll call. Well, what's your name? Paul Finley. Eric, what's your name? Eric Lagerstrom. I'm Nick. My name's Nick Goldston.

There, did it. That's how out of practice we are. I mean, I instantly caught it, so I'm pretty much fine. I really didn't. You are the one that catches all the mistakes in the relationship. This is true. And points them out frequently. We would be lost.

Anyway, Paul and I just got back from a ski trip, something that we, I guess we're on a three-year cycle now is absolutely magical. We feel very recovered after having only like 30 or 40 minutes of Wi-Fi a day and doing a lot of backcountry skiing in the mountains. And Nick, you're in New York. So once we get past to all the things that we've been doing, we'll be back to normal. Most of this podcast relies on people writing in questions and we talk about them and answer them. So if you've done that, thank you so much. If you haven't done that, get on it. Eric, I feel like you just skied past the fact that you kind of had a spiritual awakening at this ski trip.

Did you not? Yeah, I think we need to go into a deeper dive about ski trips. Agreed. I was just going broad strokes and then I figured we would kind of like dive in. We are diving. All right. This is the dive. Let's do it.

Okay, well, we went to Powder Creek Lodge, which is you fly out of Nelson, British Columbia, a helicopter ride into the lodge. It's only accessible by helicopter. I think in the summer you could like bushwhack your way up there, but in the winter it's the only way to get up. So you're kind of like relying on the weather being good because helicopters can't fly in fog and rain and like things that happen all the time. As we found out. Uh-oh.

The way that was hairy. But anyway, once you get in, you just ski to her from the lodge all week. And this year just happened to have like record snowfall for December, but relatively safe avalanche conditions at the same time. So it was this like magical combination of being able to ski really big, cool things that usually can't ski until the spring. and it's a guided trip. So two really experienced amazing guides. One of them was the same as we had last time when we went in 2023 and a chef. So it's like this crazy combination of there was basically like 10 people there, 10 guests.

And then John and Shelley, who owned the lodge and who invited us to come. And then three guides and a chef. And that's like our little family for a week. and it's this crazy combination of like feeling like you're in the wilderness in some ways because you're like using a composting toilet and you're having a bucket shower and there's things that are like rudimentary about it and it makes you I mean it's kind of a fun thing though like there's nothing gross about it it's just very simple you know you can only have a 60 second shower and the water's warm but when the bucket's empty the bucket's

empty so you're just like conserving water and but at this on the flip side it's like these five-star meals three times a day. You're living like a king from 200 years ago, basically. The food is the best you could possibly have on this planet, but there's no internet. Yeah, and I mean, the no internet for most of the day is what we like about it. Right, it's a plus. I mean, it's like they turn it on in the morning and in the evening for a really limited time. And in those hours where it's on, you're wanting to go to the sauna in the bucket shower

and talk to other people. And it just gets you in this insanely nice routine where you're waking up, eating breakfast, skiing for eight hours, coming back to the lodge, your apprae meal is ready. You go to the sauna bucket shower, then have dinner. And then you're so tired, you want to go to bed. And you do that for six days straight. And it puts you in this like super zen, just like repetitive being in nature, relaxing mindset. I read like two books and, yeah, we never wanted to leave, but eventually you have to leave. How strenuous was the physical part of the day?

It's interesting because you're out for eight hours total, seven to eight, you know, six to eight, I'd say. And I were a heart ray monitor just out of curiosity. And when you're basically the guide is making it so that when you're going uphill, he's like crossing back and forth so you're never really going up an extremely steep ground. You can always kind of ski uphill without your risers on is kind of their goal, I guess. But you're going through powder that's, I think the snow base was like 250 centimeters. Oh, my God. That's like eight and a half feet.

It's so much. Like you're literally skiing over trees that are just buried. And the trees that you see are actually like huge trees, but they're little trees. So, yeah, just an insane amount of snow. So the physical effort of like just moving through powder that deep, is what makes it more challenging and makes it fairly slow when you look at your overall speed of the day. It's not like going for a run, but you're constantly moving. Even when you're doing the transitions of skins, you're moving, you're skiing downhill has its challenges because the powder's so deep.

So I don't know. I wouldn't say it's like, I'd say it's like going for an easy bike ride for that long. Got it. And did you feel safe the whole time? Depends on who you are I would say I felt personally incredibly safe We had very experienced guides With that specific area

They dug snow pits They were reading the weather constantly Getting radio contact with other lodges in the area To see like No avalanche activity whatsoever in the area All of the things The boxes were checked to be as safe As we possibly could

And you never saw any avalanches Or any evidence of any avalanche's No Oh, no. I mean, when the guides had their meetings in the morning, it was like across the whole region. There were no avalanches. So the conditions were like low, low, low. They basically do below tree line, at tree line, above tree line. And it was low across the board when usually it goes moderate, considerable or, you know, when last time we were there, there was considerable avalancheous. So we didn't ski even a fraction of what we did this time. Yeah. So me as someone who's like very nervous and on the air. air of caution for everything I do in life was nervous, especially like, we're just get touring up and they're like, okay, leave two school buses apart when we're crossing this

huge hill going up hill. Oh, because you don't want to put too much weight on it? Yeah, and if there's a slide, you don't want 15 people taken out. Oh, I see. Yeah. So those moments would make me nervous. This is just being intelligent. Yeah, yeah.

You know. Yeah, it's common practice. It's safety. And the guides are truly amazing. But you always have like, I mean, everything we are doing out there is a bit dangerous. I asked the guy like, are you scared right now, like standing on the top of this ridge with cornices and all? And he's like, well, I was a little bit scared. Oh, even he said that.

I mean, it's never 100% safe to do this activity. So we're being as safe as we possibly could, given what the activity was. I guess am I 100% not scared when I'm riding my bike on the road? No, exactly. I know I'm not. We got back and the second day we were back, I went for a bike ride on the roads here. It was like partly gravel, partly on the roads. And cars are like going right by me while I'm on the road. That was more scared and nervous than I was at any point on the ski trip because that feels more out of my control and more likely to have, which is just one person looking at their phone at the wrong time to take you out. So anyway, everything's dangerous. You know, you do have to be like a pretty strong skier to do this, I would say. For those who don't understand ski touring, just like a quick rundown, is you put these things on the bottom of your skis called skins, and they basically cause friction just in one direction,

which allows you to walk uphill on your skis. Then you get to the top of the hill, you take those off, and you ski down, rinse and repeat. So there's no ski runs. This is completely up to the guide to just say, we're going to go to the top of that hill over there and ski down through those trees. And then after that, we're going to go over there. so it's like it's very zen you're walking around in the mountains and also doing some downhill and every run we did was fresh powder like no duplicates but if you are interested in this trip

it's called powder creek lodge they're pretty booked up for like years in advance but they always have like some random cancellations or openings or weeks that are available so I mean I can't recommend it enough and honestly I had a little bit of an injury going into this I tripped and hurt my knee before we left I didn't think I could ski at all But I went knowing that regardless, even sitting in the lodge all day would be like an amazing experience because the food is so good. I can't explain how good the food is. Trent was our chef. He's this amazing guy from Nelson.

And anyway, I don't know about that. For the camp that we have coming up in February and for future camps that we do with TTL, like this is the gold standard. This is what we would aspire to be able to present to people as an experience. It was just, yeah, can't recommend it. enough, like Paul said. Sweet. And if you're American and you go, you can pay Canadian dollars, it's like free. Just kidding.

It's a bit cheaper. But this last story getting out was like you really have to time it with. Helicopters can't fly in fog or they have to be able to see. This is how, that's how Kobe died, I think. It was very foggy, bad and weird weather. And they accidentally crashed into the mountainside because they couldn't see it. Yeah. Yeah, very scary.

They just won't take off. Yeah, they just won't take off. So basically, like, there was a lot of delays getting in and out of the lodge on our, on our departure day, because they wouldn't fly unless it was safe. So you're kind of in the hands of the mother nature. It reminds me of a story when my mom was doing a lot of mountaineering. She was up climbing up this mountain. She was with her friend. And her friend said, oh, look at that peak over there.

I wish we could be over there. And right as he said it, the entire side of the mountain came down. And the avalan shot. Oh, and snow. Yeah, in snow. Yeah. Yeah, but I'm glad you guys had, like, no evidence of it, which I feel like when you see the evidence of avalanches somewhere, it gets in your head a little bit. Yeah, well, one of the days we were doing a transition, and someone's like, oh, this is all avalanche debris.

No, thank you. But it's not going to slide today. No, of course. Yeah, it's just, it seems very scary on the outside, but then when you understand, like, here's what causes an avalanche, here's, like, the difference between a side of a mountain that's facing east versus facing south, you know, versus. It's the sun exposure and, like, windloading. There's so many elements to it. Eric's reading an avalanche safety book right now, by the way. I am.

But, like, that's what goes into it. So, yes, like, there are, you could be walking around and go, there's no way on earth we would ski right there to our right. But over to our left, totally safe because that never goes in the sun. It's this, that, and the other thing. I mean, you're never using the word totally safe. I mean, I'm just being extreme. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm really glad you guys had a great time. The photos looked unbelievable. If you're not following Eric and Paul on Instagram and you miss these photos, I don't even know what you're. you're doing. I haven't even seen the drone footage yet. No, I have.

Eric was flying his drone while we were. Oh, really? Yeah. The video's going to be. Another thing is I was like deathly sick all week from my sister's kid or baby who got me sick. And even so, I was out for eight hours like coughing my lungs out. Worth it. Yeah.

Once in a lifetime opportunity. It's so funny when you're sick like that. Like I don't remember at all being sick. I just remember how awesome it was. Yeah. Even though in the moment I was like, wow, I feel like. Well, we're going to quickly move on to something and then I have a few more fun things considering that this is our first episode of 2026, but let's start with something we haven't

done in a while, which is a shred or bed. Shred or! Bed. Aw. So I'm going to present something. You guys just have to tell me shred or bed. Okay. And this is just for you two specifically.

Classic. Staying up till midnight on New Year's Eve. We went to bed. Bed. that whole lodge was like in bed before nine really no one even considered it everyone's so tired in the day yeah and then you sit in the sauna and you're just you can't function after that i don't know if i could yeah you're i've never not stayed up really yeah i've never not stayed up i don't think i've stayed up it was too special i guess we always do the new york one the new year nine o'clock yeah of course

okay um shredder bed on new year's resolutions some people are pretty against the whole thing I would say that I don't have New Year's resolutions. I would say that I have Powder Creek resolutions. I'm just like, how can I bring this low Wi-Fi and, like, routine of, like, consistency into my day? And that's, I'm, like, really working hard on that. What about you, Paula? Yeah, I like, I don't think of, like, a resolution.

Like, I'm going to start this thing that I never did last year or something. But it is in mentally kind of a blank slate, I'd say, to maybe pick up something that you know you should maybe do more regularly or be a little more conscious about going to bed early or I don't know it's a fresh start but also at the same time I don't think it's like this revolutionary thing where you can adopt a completely new yeah that's maybe unreasonable it almost has more to do with like it being the beginning of a new season of training as much as like oh I see because it coincides with offseason getting back to training yeah all that these are all New Year's Eve um themed yeah yeah um drinking

champagne on New Year's Eve. We shred. Yeah. Shred. Yeah. Shred. Sweet. We shredded. It's a bit... We could just do a full episode on Powder Creek, but it's bring your own alcohol up there. Oh, God. Because they don't have a liquor license, so they can't provide alcohol with their amazing food. But you can bring it, but you have a weight limit. So you got a, you got to wave a like... I see. I see. How many... I'm going to wear the same outfit all week, but I'm going to

bring a case of wine. Right. We have friends with the cons. You know, we all have our priorities. Okay, next one here, doing something extravagant for New Year's Eve. For example, I every year just hang out with a bunch of my friends in my parents' living room, and we love that. We play board games and we just watch TV. Some people go out to like crazy expensive night clubs and things. Well, we flew in a helicopter to a lodge in the middle of nowhere. That's pretty extravagant. That's not exactly a yearly occurring. Normally we have friends over and then bed. So got it. Got it. And last one, this is kind of New Year's Eve themed.

Christmas songs between Christmas and New Year's. No. Christmas Day? They're done. We're done. I don't mind like Christmas lights and Christmas trees up until after New Year's, but Christmas songs are just overdone. Yeah.

I guess I never thought about it, but yeah, I guess I agree. Yeah. But there's some Christmas songs that are more seasonal. They're like about winter or about. Right. They're not about Santa. Walking in a winter wonderland. Yeah.

Yeah. Those can live on. Yeah. Cool. Well, that was shredder bed. And you know what's fun? Flynn is here. And I feel like he's a bit of like a shred 24-7 kind of guy.

But he's got the cone of shame on right now. Yeah. I mean, Flynn is his life is shredder bed. He's either shredding or he's in bed. She's the definition of shredder bed. Absolutely no middle ground. Yeah. Well, we left Flynn with a really nice girl in Rosalind.

And while we were away, he sliced his paw open, which is sad. And I mostly felt bad for her having to deal with this pointer who's injured. And yet again, Flynn has a problem. So now he's in a cone because he won't stop looking it. And he has a good life, but he's had a lot of medical issues lately. They're all due to him shredding. Yep. For sure.

Nothing, it's literally nothing else. Yeah, he cut his paw on like ice. Yeah. Well, one more thing before we talk about questions is that the, did you want to talk about Eric, the team camp? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I basically have spent most of my time since, you know, that I'm

not training and that we weren't at Powder Creek, like wrapping up all of the things with Team TTL, dealing with any shipments that got lost and stuff like that. And then Jordan and I have been working really hard and putting together all of the final details for base camp. And how many spots are left as of today? We're only down to two. Two left. Only two left. Which is awesome. You know, we were like we were hitting the goal of how many we wanted to sell out for the perfect number of people and to make it all make sense and et cetera. So, I do think it is going to like officially finally sell out. We've got one more month until we're in Lake Las Vegas.

Crazy, crazy. Awesome resort. Absolutely incredible rides and runs planned. Great way to kick off the season. I mean, honestly. Yeah, I mean, just on that triathlon life.com. It's not currently the main paid, like the main banner feature, but are you sure? I just changed it.

Okay. Got it. Got it. I do website. Okay. Got it. But yeah, it's on there. And it's going to be great.

Hit us up with any questions you have. But yeah, I don't know. You and I were talking about it as we were on our way to the snow run today. And like Nick and I would be going. We would all be going even if no one else was going. Correct. So you're basically invited to our training camp. We're going to make it as awesome as possible for everybody who comes along.

And we're going to be taking pictures and doing all the fun things. So it's going to be great. And I'm sorry. One last thing. Do you think people should be bringing road bikes, gravel bikes, mountain bikes, fat tire bikes, A T-T bikes? A T-T bike. Oh, so you feel confident with your T-Bike.

I kind of think it's a road bike vibe. Yeah, road or T-T. Yeah. But don't bring a gravel bike. I'm kidding. It's between road and T-T, but what do you think? We have dreams of a gravel-oriented camp later in the year, but this one is definitely, I just actually finished putting the final touches on the first email that's going out to people who are signed up.

And it does say T-T bikes are okay, but road bikes are the preferred tool for the job, just because, you know, riding in a group, and then there's going to be some good elevation gain. Nice. Nice. Okay, you guys ready for some questions? Let's do it. And then I also want to just tease for your little brains here that halfway through the questions, I'm going to ask everyone to do some New Year's resolutions here. And if you're a podcast listener, also use this as an opportunity to start subconsciously thinking about your New Year's resolutions, which I expect you to also give us.

Well, we should tell people that this is our 199th episode. So next week, like the reason Nick is here in person with us is we're going to do a video recording of our 200th episode, and in that episode, as we've done for other monumental episodes, 100 and 150, is we will call people and ask them to give us questions live on a phone call. So we're going to record that podcast Sunday at in the morning Pacific time. So if you want us to call you potentially, if you want your phone number to go in the pot of numbers we're going to select to call people. from. Then we will put an Instagram story up Saturday where you can just put your phone number in

and then be available Sunday morning and you might get a call from us and have a question ready and we'll have a little short chat. Make sure to put your name in there too because we've had this problem in the past where it's just a phone number and like a username that's like XXX Biker Boy 29. Hey, fun size 53. Yeah, exactly. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. I guess not. If you want anonymity, you can have it. Is this XXXX, Bike Boy 29? Sounds like one of Elon's kids. I'm not putting that in there. You should.

Okay, we have questions now, and this is a good batch because we got to choose from a bunch here since it's been our longest ever break, by the way, from the podcast. We've never taken more than a week off. We're coming back with some high-quality stuff. Hot. Coming back in hot. On all fronts. You can submit your questions to the podcast at ThattriathlonLife.com slash podcast, where you can also check out the camp. There's really cool gear.

There's cool. photos, there's stories, and you can also become a podcast supporter on that, which we appreciate. It's the lifeblood of this podcast, and you are the people that keeps this thing going. Very thankful. Thankful for everyone who's been a podcast supporter since the beginning, too. First question here is from Zach, with just a K. Hey, Tripod, I'm loving the podcast and currently working my way from episode one to current day. I'm about halfway through and really enjoy what you bring to the sport.

It keeps me motivated during my own training and gets me excited. for each session. They're not going to hear this for like a year. Who? They're only halfway through the podcast. They have 100 episodes to listen to. People who say that, they listen to the current ones, usually what I find. And they, while simultaneously during the week.

Hopefully he hears it. Because I remember this feeling of binging podcasts, and you listen to like 14 a week, including the one that comes out that week, at least in my experience, if you're sick like me. my question is about food I live in a Wahoo and for those who don't know that's Hawaii I live in a Wahoo I live in a kicker

I'm a mouse and my family and I live in a kicker survive on rubber wires which is awesome for year-round training just like a kicker and endless open water swimming opportunities however there's no Trader Joe's or Chipotle tragic

This may be more of a question for Nick as a fellow age grouper with a somewhat normal day job, incorrect, although I'm interested in all of your answers, but what are your go-to breakfasts and snacks for keeping energy up during the day? What is your emergency meal when you forget to meal prep or leave it at home? Caviot, you can't use Trader Joe snacks or Chipotle. Wishing you all great semi-off season is Paula somehow quick turns from T-100 to Iron Man, New Zealand in March. Why do people think I'm doing that? Also, is it even in March? Yeah, it is. Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. Okay. Because we had talked about it previously as like a potential, but I hope you all get a great mental reset before another year. Respectfully, Zach, yeah, we did get a great mental reset as you just heard. Paul, do you want to address the New Zealand claims? Yeah, I think it was on the table, but. But we smashed the table.

Yeah, I smashed the table. Okay, great. I mean, I'm going to do an Iron Man this year, but I have had a little bit of injury struggles across the whole body. So I am currently just trying to get through like a 45-minute bike ride. Right. Okay. So leave me alone and I'll do one when I do one.

Okay, got it. Great. So I think this question is not at all specific to me. I think all three of us have great and different answers to this. You guys are snack machines. I feel like you're always little nibbling on something. So what are those things? We have, I mean, first and foremost, sex bread.

I feel like that is crucial to the survival of this household. Eric got back from Powder Creek into Saturday. That's my New Year's Resolution, teaser. More sex bread. Do you want to, can you explain what sex bread is, Eric? Because maybe some people are interested in making it. The bread, that is. Yeah, I make a really simple bread from a cookbook that this bread doesn't require any kneading.

So it's like relatively quick. I can, you know, make it and put it together like for 10 minutes. minutes in the evening and then it's a yeast is it yeast free it has yeast you just don't have to like need it for an hour so then you just let it rise overnight and then you let it do a second rise or proof whatever in the morning and then put it in the oven so it like works into my routine of where I wake up at 530 like 30 minutes before paula and I can do this and it's like kind of zen but it's so tasty that's why we call it sex bread because it's better than or good as sex that's really selling myself short but yes I do

I do love it. I love it so much. You did say that. And then also there's a deal where anytime someone ate the sex bread, they have to have sex with the sex bread maker. And it's at the discretion of the sex bread maker. Unless otherwise pardoned. So luckily I don't have to partake in this. Frequently.

I have a permanent pardon. Okay. So we have that. And toast it with some butter is amazing and it's a great snack. Yeah. We do a lot of, I mean, when Eric's not making this, which is most of. of the year. We have bagels, toast. We eat a lot of bread. Eric eats a lot of crackers with hummus as a good snack. Was there any, like, criteria? No Chipotle, no Trader Joe's. But it's, I mean,

he was saying if you're at work and you forget something, but. Yeah, I think bringing like hummus and crackers anywhere is great. Hummus and carrot sticks. Hummus is just like kind of filling because it's protein and some fat, but you can dip stuff in it. I think it's a really good go-to thing. We always have it in the van fridge. Similarly to that with as far as protein and carbs, my favorite midday snack is Greek yogurt with granola. I was going to say yogurt's good. I really, really love that. Paula cranks through the yogurt.

So instant to make. And if you're an athlete, like granola has a lot of sugar in it, but if you're an athlete, I think it's great to have. Yeah, also kefir, like granola with kefir. Kiefer is really good for you. We have apples and peanut butter. Yeah. Lots of chocolate. Lots of different types of crackers.

is we've got cereal on hand in a pinch midday cereal. We've been asked this before. Yeah. I also like toast and eggs. It's not really a snack, but it's so quick. Hard-boiled eggs is a good snack to have on hand. To bring hard-boiled eggs with you wherever you had to work.

That's a great one. Like boil a full 12 on Sunday and then just take like two a day with salt to work. This is another thing I've started doing since the lodge, but overnight oats, you could do, like, those travel really well. Since the lodge. Yeah, I mean, the go-to breakfast, everyone knows this, but I have my, like, depression oatmeal, which is just plain oatmeal with a bunch of fillers that don't taste like anything, and I do that every day. You guys do, Paul, you do, like, jam and toast? Yeah, unless I'm at Powder Creek, that I do, like, smoke salmon.

Nice, yeah. Yeah. And Eric, you do cereal. Yep, for the most part. Yeah. Cereal cocktail. Yeah, but I think constantly having a little, like, constantly hitting yourself with a little carbon protein throughout the day. good stuff

ideally you don't have a massive dinner that keeps you up right yeah get it during the day yeah okay next question here is from Cassie

from Brisbane hi team yeah far that's awesome hi team TTL firstly thank you for all the content keeps me engaged and inspired I finally cut up on most

of the YouTube and podcast episodes took me a while totally love the connection between you three how did you all originally meet obviously through racing

for Paula and Eric but when did it become more? Nick, your friendship with Paul and Eric is so cool. How did you become close friends? Keep up the podcast episodes, loving, listening on my long rides. Love to all Cassie from Brisbane. We have talked about this before, but maybe some people don't know. But let's start out with you two.

You were in China. Is that right? Yeah. I think they really only care about how the three of us met. Well, Paula and I first started flirting at the Beijing International Triathlon, and then we had our first date in Canmore a couple months later and just kept it rolling. Nick slid into my DMs.

Oh, wow. Notty. Yeah, there were no dating apps involved in this tripod. Or sex bread to be spoken of. That came later. But yeah, I had just done the music for this North Face film, and they, last minute, didn't use the music that I had done for it. And so I hit up Eric.

I had been watching the YouTube. This was in 2019. late 2019, early 2020. And I told him that I had a bunch of songs that I thought were cool that he could potentially use for something. Yep, and I answer all of my Instagram direct messages. So found it and free music. Heck yeah.

And then it just turned out that we liked all the same things. That's right. And then I was here, coincidentally, with an ex-girlfriend for a month, her idea. And then when you guys knew I was here, literally the first morning we were here, I got a text from Eric. It was like, hey, you want to go for a run? And then the rest is history And you were a yes man

Yeah, definitely a yes man So it all worked down Yeah But that's the origin story there But anyone who knows Nick Like when you meet Nick You feel like he's your best friend But he's not

He's our best friend So don't even think that It can only be one best But I think that helped With like getting the ball rolling Yeah I guess and then we should We could also say that

It was in the back of our minds I think collectively To do a podcast for a long time But at some point Not right away But after a bit. I had just been nagging you guys about you too doing a podcast. Yeah.

And I said, absolutely, you must be on it to bring some sort of extra dimension besides Paul and I just talking and potentially bickering. And it's worked out fantastically. Totally. It was totally Eric's idea. Yeah. And I thought at first it was a bad idea to have me on it. I selfishly liked, I thought, oh, that would be fun.

But I thought no one's going to want to, no one's going to want this nobody to be a part of this thing that already works. I think there may be some people that think that you're unnecessary but the second that you wouldn't be there and it was just Paul and I, I think they would realize how necessary you are.

I disagree. I don't think there's a single listener who would think Nick's unnecessary. Oh, I know there's many listeners who think I am way beyond unnecessary. I think some people might think that you speak with too much like

I know this. Even though I'm just an age group or guy. Right, right. But I mean, you do. Most of your own. answers are from the perspective of the every match. Yeah, we would chop you down if you would set something wrong. I spent a lot of time, like, learning about triathlon because I love it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think one of the things people might criticize you on is you consider yourself, like, a slow age grouper when, in fact, you're, like, one of the fastest. I'm not, yeah, I, slow is unfair. And middle, like, is unfair, too. But there's people that are fully age groupers that are so, so, so, so much faster. Yeah, but. And I'm not one of those. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

I don't want to mislead or misrepresent myself. I try hard and I try to go as fast as I can. I'm not out there to just finish the race. There we go. Yeah, that's that. Next question here is from Avery, sub-tripod. How much, if at all, do you consider planning your workout for the day in relation to the order of a triathlon?

Sometimes with work, life, et cetera, I have to bike in the morning, then swim in the afternoon, or run in the morning, then swim or bike later. Do you ever encounter this? Do you find any upsides to switching it up? Does it depend on what type of workout you have planned for each discipline? Thanks, love y'all. Avery.

That's a fun question. I don't think we plan it in relation to the order of a triathlon. Like, oh, we got to swim first and bike next and run less. But I think naturally when we wake up, going to the pool sounds the most doable. Because when we wake up, we're like everything's sore. And going to the pool, there's people there to meet. It keeps you accountable. generally we just start with that, but it is nice sometimes to start the day with your hardest

session, which could be a run, could be a bike, and be a little fresher for that, because the pool really drains you. And you get home from that if you have a hard session afterwards, it's hard to kind of rally for it. Yeah, I'm more inclined to build it around what's the hardest thing. Yeah, and sometimes it is good to go into a hard run with some fatigue from a session prior. Yeah. But if you really want to like feel great and have like the best chance of success and you're kind of tired. Putting the hardest thing first is generally the best. It's also often weather dependent. It's like in the summertime, it's cooler in the morning. In the wintertime, it's freezing. And currently, the ground is like an ice rink. And it might be less so midday.

So that often makes it so that we swim in the morning all winter long just while we're waiting for it to warm up. Isn't it funny? This kind of works out that even if you're not really trying, you do the sports in order. Most people swim in the morning. And then, And if you have a bike and a run, you're not going to run before you bike most often. You're going to bike first. Unless it's like a recovery ride after a hard run. Yeah, we'll have that sometimes. Oh, I see.

Like a 90-minute hard run and then a 90-minute cruisy bike ride. Oh, I've never. So then we would do the bike ride last. Yeah. That's that large volume training. After a 90-minute run, hard run, do a 90-minute, like easy ride. Well, you don't have a job except for that. Right.

You have time. Right. Right. It is good recovery. I always feel better the next day if I ride after I run. Yeah. Okay, well, now I teased it. And now I think it would be fun and take this as seriously as you desire.

But some 2026 skills, they can be triathlon related or they can not be triathlon related. Just kind of personal things. And actually, it's funny you guys brought this up. But for me, one of them is to not do that thing where I make people feel like my best friend when I meet them. Get away from me. A bit more of an asshole. See, I'm trying to figure out what the line is because I can't tell what's making me do that. But it's something that I do and that sometimes is a problem.

Like, I'll hurt people's feelings because they thought we had a relationship that I didn't feel like. So something like that. Anecdotally, I feel like you immediately invite people on things. Like you met them like three minutes ago and you're like, oh, what are you doing on Saturday? Let me get your number. You want to come on a bike ride? That's right. Persons, you could just be like, you know what, we should ride some time.

Nice to meet you. That's right. Correct. And then never ride with them. Yeah, but that's like, I love it. I really love it. But it's not fair to the person. You're right.

Yeah. Also, like, I think a lot of the time you refer to people, we're just roasting Nick today. It's fine. You'll be like, my friend, you'll tell us. Correct. You're like, my friend, Jojo, and we're like, what do you mean your friend? We've never even heard of this person. How are they your friend?

Yeah. And it's like, you met them at salt and straw. Right. They're not your friend yet. Right. How you classify people. How I classify, the word friend to me is, I use it very liberal. Yes, yes.

Very liberally. Yeah, totally. I mean, maybe that's not a bad thing. I don't think this is a bad thing at all. I have like 10 friends. Right. Yeah. You made the cut.

I would prefer, I would personally prefer to be more like you than I am like me where it's like intensely hard for, like I'll open up to people really quickly once I get a good feeling about them. but I don't just, like, become friends with a wide, wide, wide range of different people. Yeah, I do like that about me. What I don't like is when people then feel hurt by the not reciprocating it. You know, like, if I don't call them, like, every day, then they're like, what's going on if that we were friends? I'm like, I met you on the plane a week ago, you know? Like, maybe we'll be more friends. Anyway, this is too much of a rabbit hole.

Well, Paula. Psychoanalyst. 2026 goals. We already talked about one that I know you want to do. What? We both want to be on our phone list in 2026. Yeah, of course, but that's impossible. I mean, I had this little minor goal that I've already failed at.

That's why New Year's resolutions are dumb. But I want to do more like core stretching PT stuff, like 30 minutes a day is nothing in the picture. You haven't failed at it. Well, I didn't do it today. Well, I mean, you can do it like five days out of the week and it still be a massive success. Yeah. Exactly. I like that too, by the way.

I'm going to add that to my list. stretching and strength stuff, that's good. That's a good one. I need that badly. And when I'm doing it, I'm like, yeah, I love this. I'm going to do it more. Oh, you like it? Yeah.

I despise every second of it. Oh, I just need, like, carving out the time when you feel like you can initiate it is the hard part. And then once you start, it's fine. And you used to really love and do a lot of yoga, too. Yeah, I love going to yoga classes, but, I mean, that is time consuming. But doing 10 minutes of core or 15 minutes of yoga is not time-consuming. I did it at the lodge every day. And I was like, I'm going to keep doing this.

Okay, we might circle back to you, Eric. That's my answer. Okay, great, great. Basically, I want to set up more structure in my days. So I have this thing where I'll wake up and I'll start, I'll get on my laptop. And my plan is to go ride at 9 or go to the pool with Paula 815. and before I know it it's like 10.45

and I'm still like haven't gotten through the emails and haven't even gotten to editing the video which was like my primary thing and then it's like two and I have to go get on the bike and just like squeeze in two and a half hours on the bike or something because it's just like this slippery slope.

So I'm trying to model again off of the time at the lodge and be like I'm going to wake up at 6 I'm going to have breakfast and then from 630 to 8.30 I'm just going to like do as much work as I can and then pretend like the internet is off. I'm not going to like have Gmail be the first thing that's open on my desktop. And then I'm going to do all my training and stuff until like four, ideally in a perfect

scenario, and then do like another couple hours of work very intentionally and then make dinner. So is this something that you want to stick to every day or is it something that you're going to each day plan what that schedule looks like for the day? Or maybe the night before or something like that. In a perfect world, I would stick to that exact schedule because I think it feels really good. I'm very productive for about two hours when I know I have that amount of time. If I know I have four hours, I'm less productive. I just kind of like answer emails that are easy to answer, don't get the thing I actually wanted to do.

And then I'm also like riding my bike and like answering text messages about when the beanies are going to be ready versus just pretending like I don't have Wi-Fi and doing that thing. then doing the other thing. It was very eye-opening to have this time at the lodge and realized that nothing caught on fire. The world kept turning. TTR didn't fall apart. And I only had an hour of Wi-Fi a day. So that's what I'm hoping.

And I'm also basically like the night before and keeping this running list of like, here's what I want to do on Tuesday in terms of jobs that I want to accomplish. Here's what I'm going to do on Wednesday. Rather than just having this 40 item list of to-dos that I just like try to hack away at one of the other. at a time. So I'm just like trying to be more organized, which is a struggle for me, but it feels good.

I agree. And I want to do the same. I love it. I think it's great. Well, those are our 2026 resolutions. And I encourage you, if you're listening, and you're into this kind of thing, put it in a phone note, do something, post about it on the app. Maybe it could be a cool thing to have a threat about in the app if you're feeling it. Oh, I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Next question here is from Abby, from Arkansas. That's a joke. It's called Arkansas. Hi, Nick, Paul, and Eric, I saw a post the other day about how, as endurance athletes, we minimize our accomplishments because it becomes our norm. For instance, a year ago today, I wouldn't have dreamed of training for a half Ironman or doing my first Olympic distance try, my second half marathon in the spring with a marathon coming up next fall. But now when I talk to my friends, it's like, oh, but it's just Olympic distance, or it's only a half marathon. When just a few years ago, I didn't think I'd be able to run again or do any type of cardio. because of heart problems.

And I surely wasn't in any sort of shape to do any of those things. But here we are. I guess my question is this. If you all feel like this too, how do you still celebrate and be proud of your accomplishments when it feels like there's always more to push toward and what you've already done isn't enough? Thanks. Love the pod and all that you do. Abby from Arkansas.

Yeah, that is a trap. I have a strong feeling about this question. Okay, go. it's that I think for me at least and I think for a lot of us it's less about trying to feel the thing once you've done it and more about appreciating and enjoying the process of training for it and realizing that you spend so much more time training for the thing than achieving the thing so you might as well learn how to like that part of it and for me I feel like I slowly am learning how to do that yeah I agree I I love the process and I don't think it necessarily needs to be longer. It can just be different. You know, like you could train for half Iron Man this year and next year you could try to run your fastest 5K ever and immerse yourself in that process. It's absolutely no way lesser than running a 50K or 100 mile or doing an Iron Man. It's just like a different challenge. And no matter what,

I think the addictive thing is like pushing into the unknown and trying something different. So that doesn't need to be an ever-increasing amount of volume rather than just like a different stimulus. Totally. I think that even when you win an Olympic gold medal, this happens to pro athletes or elite athletes. They're like, what's the next thing? This proves my point, which is like, it's never, the thing is never,

you could achieve the highest thing, which is an Olympic gold medal, a world championship. And there's always the next thing. I mean, it's kind of crazy. Like when Lucy won 70.3 worlds, I'm like, if that was me, I would just be done for the year, not going to T-100, anything. But there's always like, what if I win guitar, you know? So even at that tippy, tippy, top level best people in the world that happens to. I do wonder, though, if it's worse for people like you guys.

Oh, I think it's probably worse. I think it's much worse. And the reason that you got to where you are is because of this, because when you won, you didn't. celebrate you were like what's next i'm never i'm not done here i was i won four races this year i was happy in the moment about all four of them but it was always like oh this isn't the biggest race and the best people weren't here or like there's always some reason why it wasn't that impressive even though in like two years or three years even now when i'm looking back at it i'm like oh that was pretty impressive or wins pretty good i mean i don't care about the

number of wins but just in the moment there's always the next thing that's bigger and better and what could you do differently and yeah just like you're you're being critical of yourself all the time I'm not as fast as Paula but I also think I'm massively better at this than she is so you could take that with and interpret that however you want I think I'm very good at being like that was amazing I'm excited about that and not like just picking out all the negative things right and you might say yeah Eric that's why you didn't get second at worlds or maybe you say how lucky is Eric that he gets to revel in that success when he actually has it. Right.

I think, yeah, like I still have like a high degree of that, but I think it's less intense than I observe from Paula. Yeah, and then there's people who do one Olympic distance and they love it for the rest of the life that they did it, you know? Yeah. It's like, we really have all ends at the spectrum there. Okay, next one here from Morgan. Hi, TTL.

This is a bit out in left field, but do you have any ideas on the best dry line? exercises to mimic swimming. I'd like to do a race this year that comes immediately after I'm working on a ship for two months straight. I won't be able to swim at all during this time. Can't you just swim behind the ship? Come on. This is perfect.

I won't be able to swim at all during this time. Kind of ironic that I'll be surrounded by water the whole time. But at least I'll have a treadmill and stationary bike. I don't need to have an awesome swim, but I'd like to at least not injure myself from going from zero to 100 on race day.

Thanks for any ideas, Morgan. And the idea of training fully for a triathlon while on a ship is pretty cool. It's pretty wild. Can we get somebody there to document this? This needs its own docu-series. Yeah. So we were chatting about this earlier because I was thinking, like, you can't do anything. And both of you disagreed and had great reasons, great things that you could do.

It's a bit like COVID. You know, a lot of people are doing stretch cords. You can do core. You can do planks. You can do things that will help you with your, like, stability and strength in the water. The thing you won't get is feel for the water, which is like a huge part of swimming, but you can make the best of it and like get through a race, I think, with, yeah, doing like 10 minutes of plank exercises or taking stretch cords with you on the ship and doing stretch cord band swimming motion, you know, and get really strong doing that. So we all did that during COVID. When you guys were swimming for a swim team, what did they?

tell you to do in the off season? There was no off season. Oh, God. That's miserable. That's why we can swim now. Right. Because you were tortured as children. I was thinking about this, actually.

We would go on, when I was in university swimming for U of A, University of Alberta, we would go on winter or Christmas training camp and swim like three times a day, sometimes, at least two times a day for all of like Christmas break. So Christmas break wasn't a break. It was like this huge ramp in swimming. And you'd come back after January 1st and feel like you had this huge boost in your swimming. This is off topic. But yeah, there was like no downtime.

Would they make you do during training? Would they make you do pull-ups or rows? A lot of dry land, yeah, yeah. What kind of stuff would you guys do while still swimming? I'm curious, maybe that could be something that they could do if they have a gym. We had a pretty intense stretch cord and medicine ball routine. when I like the best dry line that I did and we literally did it was like 15 or 20 minutes of stretch cords and you basically like would put a stretch cord over a thing that's about as tall as a doorway and we would do around where like your elbow stays in the same place but you do like a pull just with your forearms we do that for five minutes on both you know both sides at the same time and then we would do one where you do the entire swim stroke and then we would do one where it's like just your triceps are activating and then we would do the thing where you're like

kind of sit in like a crab position not a crab position but half like squatting yeah and then you have like the medicine ball and you like are rotating it over your your waist oh while lying down like not no no while you're just your butts on the ground

and you're like doing a crunch in the air so like that's kind of what my brain goes to but mostly like body weight medicine ball stretch cords I never did like weights which is good for the ship yeah when you guys are doing the stretch cords is there like a is it is it hard

is it aerobically difficult is it burning your muscles or is it more of a range of motion thing when well at least when we did it yeah at least when we did it it was kind of like as fast as you could move through the stroke thing and you wanted to have the sensation of about the same amount of like resistance as you're swimming it's not like really hard to get to the bottom of the thing but you're doing five minutes of continuous so your heart rate would definitely get up got it well i think i mean that's my best thought on yeah yeah yeah because it's like a little bit aerobic a little bit strength yeah yeah that's great and the nice thing is you the The swim is the least likely place for you to get injured.

So that's at least something to take with you. And last question here for our 199th episode. This is from Kyle. Hey, TTL. I have an eight-year-old daughter, almost nine, who did her first triathlon this summer and absolutely loved it. She's really into the idea of training. She's already excited about racing again next summer.

I don't want to push her or put her under any pressure, but I do want to support her enthusiasm and gently encourage her interest. Any advice on how to nurture a young kid's excitement for triathlon in a healthy, fun, and age-appropriate way? She's in swim lessons, and we just upgraded her mountain bike. She loves being out on the trails, best Kyle. The reason I like this one, too, is we had a question a few weeks ago that we didn't get to. That was very similar to this. Eight, almost nine.

Push, put her in swim club and put her bike in the garage until she's 15. Just kidding Keep that mountain biking going Just kidding That's the recipe for if you want to go to the Olympics Yeah In one sport swimming No in triathlon

Well I do think I wonder if running and swimming to me I think of a kid like that's the stuff that is hardest to develop as an adult I think that running when you're that young Should only be for fun You shouldn't be training But I think the approach that you're taking of like Swimming lessons and getting a mountain bike

because you inherently enjoy those two things. And then I honestly do think going into a swim club of some sort is a good idea. I wonder if there's any data on nine-year-olds running and if that's unhealthy. I feel like it's pretty young to be doing that. Like if you go to a track club, for example, at least back when I was running track, if you're that age, I think you do all the events. Like you're training, you're not training for running. you're doing the throws and the jumps and you're like more doing like you're playing track

everything right being a heptathlet yeah because it can be i think damaging if you're really run training when you're that young can have long-term effects just really your bones are still getting strong and your joints are yeah but what about mentally for a kid like i just think like keep the racing fun obviously it's i think it's okay of kids are competitive and they go to like a local kids of steel and they want to try to win, that's just like, it's cool when kids are competitive at that age and they have the sense of like, I want to do my best at this, but without any pressure externally, you know. That's what I was getting at here.

For both of you, you were athletes young. Can you think of things that maybe your own parents or maybe not your own parents, but things that you saw even from other parents that you're like, ooh, that feels like that was not healthy or good? Or the opposite, where you saw something... I never saw anything like that from parents. Because I'm thinking of like me at soccer games and I was a kid and I could see parents just getting so heated and yelling at like the refs.

It's like, oh, these kids are eight years old. Just what are you getting so worked up about? Yeah. And that was, you know, that's a different example. But if something like you saw that or a parent that was always too helicoptery over a kid or... Not personally. I like the idea of exposing kids to his men.

many things as possible. And sometime in their like preteen years, I think something's going to really stick and they're going to want to be more competitive about it and find it. Especially if they're good at it. Yeah. And you know, like Paula danced and I did some soccer and did some skateboarding and all these things. And I think that makes you a more robust athlete than if you were just running around a track from nine years old. Yeah. I think I think kids that play soccer and kids that dance are actually become really good athletes in something else later because they have that ability to move more than in just one plane of motion and have some awareness of their body and have

additional flexibility and have, yeah, there's a lot of positives that come out of dancing, gymnastics, soccer, volleyball, all of those things, even if you end up being an endurance athlete later on. I do think if we're trying to manufacture the best triathlet, mountain biking is not the thing. It's great for bike handling on road bikes, too. Yeah, but I think it's so weird when I see little kids on road bikes. It's great.

I mean, it's just like the chances of you continuing to do triathlon versus just falling in love with mountain biking are very low. I will say, like, I started swimming competitively when I was 11. I started triathlon when I was 16. So I was quite old, I'd say. and even though when I started trathlon at 16, I barely rode my bike. I was still swimming with a swim club. I was running track with the track club, and I'd ride, like, on the trainer while I was studying.

I was the opposite. You rode a ton. I loved riding so much. Like, from 12, all my teen years, I was going to, like, Tuesday night bike races. So, like, like, crit style. Well, it's about the culture of where you live. Like, I lived in the tundra in Edmonton. You weren't riding your bike outside.

Except for the summer. Yeah. Yeah. Like Portland was an amazing bike culture and amazing roads to ride. So I fully fell in love with that. And your dad rode? My dad. Well, my dad ended up riding because I got into riding.

And so he did it as well. And we shared that a little bit. And I did the minimum amount of running that I could because I hated that. And like there wasn't good running around me. What I'm saying, though, is like if you want to be good at junior triathlon, Olympic distance or sprint distance, the bike is the least important. Right. Because it's draft legal and all the kids are little. It can be fun.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But if it's fun and you like it, yeah, go. But if you're trying to be an Olympian, if that's the goal, which I don't know, or nine-year-old, yeah, for sure. Nine-year-olds are like, yeah, I want to go to the Olympics, right? Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

I never did at all. Right. But, yeah, for sure. When I was nine, I still was, like, so into dancing. I wanted to be, like, a ballerina. I love it. The photos. Yeah, I love it.

Yeah. So it's never too late to, like. Yeah, I could imagine you as a ballerer. ballerina. Eric, could you imagine her as a ballerina? Doing the nutcracker? I mean, I think Paula could have done anything she wanted to. That's the right answer.

That's the right husband answer. Yeah, that's the right husband answer. You're right. Maybe not downhill mountain biking. I don't know. Right, right. Yeah, well, I don't know if we even answered that, but. Yeah, no, I just are you're, I think you guys both were athletes young, so you do have

this inherent understanding of what it was like to be a kid as an athlete and being pushed and what that felt like. Yeah. I guess it's just like I don't think the pushing should come from the parents. Like there were quite a few times that I wanted to quit swim team and what my parents told me were like, cool, well, we paid for July. So you can quit at the end of July. And like two days later, I didn't want to quit anymore because like we had a friend

group there and it was a fun process and a swim meet was coming up, et cetera. But in the moment, it wasn't like, no, you have to go and you have to get. You know, it was just, all right, like, if that's what you want, but just, like, finish out this month because you committed to that. Yeah. Swimming when I was younger, though, like, I never disliked it. Yeah, because, I mean, all my friends were there. All my best friends, even to this day from Edmonton are all from swimming. And it's hard, but you're, like, suffering all together and there's a coach telling you what to do and you're not even really thinking about it.

You're just young and doing it. I don't know. You're constantly getting best times. so it's addicting. Right, right. I definitely wanted to quit when I was having plateaus and was not getting bad times for a bit. And all I could think about was skateboarding or snowboarding

or like literally anything else that was more fun. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's also really intense being a swim parent. So early. Because you get up at, yeah, swimming before school and then you got to do swim meets and timing and bingos and all these things. It's crazy.

I don't think we'd put our, maybe we wouldn't kind of put our kids in swim club. I don't know. I think about this all the time. time. I'm like, I don't think I would. I don't want them to, I don't know. If there anything like me, it's going to be a real mental battle. We're putting them in swim lessons, but we're also putting them in mountain bike lessons and skiing lessons. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Presenting all the options. Well, as a reminder, check on Saturday on That Triathlon Life Instagram, where you can submit your phone number. And then on Sunday morning, we are going

to Sunday morning Pacific. So also if you're in Europe, feel free to put your number in there because we could call you from morning time. Pacific will be for most of Europe, perfectly reasonable. Yeah, how does that work with our cell phone bills? It will be my cell phone bills. And I'll try to do a FaceTime audio, so it will not do that. Gotcha. Yeah.

Okay. On the non-audio front, the final episode of The Long Game, just came out on the Iron Man YouTube channel. And I have got two different YouTube videos in the works that will be coming out on TTL. So YouTube is going to be going off the next little bit. Nice. Good for some kind of indoor training vibes

that people will be much needed for. I think the time is right. Oh, also we're kicking off some Zwift riding. So join the Zwift Club and you will be notified of that stuff. And we might get Nick onto Zwift. I think that would be fun. I do his drift ride while he's here and has no other option. That's right. It sounds fun here. I'm happy to, if you guys are in the same room, I'm happy to do it.

All right. Stay tuned. That's fun stuff. Anything else, guys? That's all. I mean, we've got a bunch of other stuff, but we can save it for the 200. Save it for the 200. That's all she wrote. All right, thanks, everyone. Bye. Later.