That Triathlon Life Podcast - Aero calf sleeves in triathlon, lower back pain when swimming, climbing vs flat power, and more!

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

This week we start with some Bike Tech with Eric, and then get into your questions. Questions about how often you should replace your helmet, tire pressure at elevation, following drafting rules, and more! To become a podcast supporter, and to submit your own questions, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Everyone, welcome to that triathlon live podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. You guys were not ready for the assertiveness with my intro. We just did the 3-2-1 clap and you just right out of the gates a thousand miles an hour. Paul and I were a little shocked. That's all. Guys, I'm like five minutes off the treadmill. I've had a turkey sandwich. I'm feeling amazing. It's midday. Like it is not 7 p.m. I'm not bonged. I'm psyched. Paula and I are both professional triathletes. Nick is an amateur triathlete, professional musician. And this is our podcast. where we talk about triathlon. We talk about a little bit of what we've got going on,

the races that we go to, experiences we have. And then for the bulk of the episode, we take questions from you, the listeners. Try to answer them. I'm back from altitude. I was in 9,000 feet, and I'm very glad to be swimming in oxygen again. Did you swim while you were up there?

No, I mean metaphorically, swimming in oxygen. Air is delicious. Similar, similar. That's awesome. You were up there for mountain film which is like the one year anniversary of our film being at Mountain Film. Yeah, it was very cool.

And actually there were a couple people I talked to who remembered the film. No way. Yeah, because a lot of people go there every year. It's really cool. That's sweet. I can't wait to go. Next time. Next year.

Next year. So I wanted to talk about two things real quick. We have been very busy the past couple months, and we've talked a lot about a lot of things, a lot of ways to thank the podcast supporters. So we have a kind of little bonus thing and then something that we're going to be doing habitually. The first bonus thing is that a podcast listener had this idea

and I thought it was kind of a cool idea. For this week only, anyone who leaves an iTunes review on the podcast, we're going to randomly pick one person and send them an item, a TTR item. And then on top of that, we are going to, and so that'll be announced next week. And then on top of that, we're going to do something that once a month we're going to pick a podcast supporter at random

and we're going to send them a TTL item as well. So Eric, first of all, what are we going to send this person I'm about to announce? What are we going to send them this month? We actually just got in two new colors of water bottles with a cool new design, one's blue and one's clear

and we will send you one of each. Wow, okay. And the person is, drum roll. Chris Peters from Tampa, Florida. Congratulations. Chris Peters. We're going to make sure that your address that's on file is correct. So why don't you message me? I'll just read it out loud real quick. And a social security number as well. So there you go, Chris. You're going to get two bottles. And anyone who leaves an iTunes review,

good luck. We're going to pick one of you for next week to get. Maybe should we do bottles as well? Yeah. Unless we have something else coming to stock. But bottles are sweet. Awesome. Okay. So I know last week we talked about racing a lot. But what's next? for you guys. Eric is Alcatraz next for you, I'm guessing? Yep, next weekend is Alcatraz and then Paula has Canadian time trial national championships to defend. That is so cool. For people who don't know, Paula is the reigning Canadian national time trial champion. That's where you only bike. Only biking. Can you believe that? That was so cool when that happened. Are you going to be able to be there, Eric? Yeah. Heck yeah. I'm going to be driving up our new winter can.

Woo. Very cool. And when do you guys get that? Probably like a couple days before we have to drive it north. Wait, Paula, so have you been doing pretty specific TT work for this race? Or not really? Well, it's still a while away. It's on June 23rd. Took an easy week after Chattanooga and now we're back into training. But yeah, I think the bike workouts will be a little more specifically tailored to it,

but still swim bike running since triathlons are the main focus. This is kind of for fun, but also would love to win again. So that's the goal. Can you tell me what the difference is compared to your 70.3 training? What's the distance of this? Is it like 40K? Yeah, it's only 30K, 34K maybe, but it's just higher power and holding position better, making sure you're never coming out of arrow, riding well on the downhills,

and keeping watts like over 300 at all times, no matter what. So it's a lot more intense, but obviously shorter than a half and don't have to run after. So I think that psychologically that helps a lot with actually pushing yourself a lot more because it's over when you cross the line. Just like a point of comparison, what would your watts be like on a 7.5.3? I'm not going to say that. Okay. A lot less than 300.000. No, it's, I mean, last year at the Canadian TT, I think I averaged 290 for 45 minutes.

And it was absolute hell, like so hard. But that was like with some corners and stuff. So like on my power meter I tried to keep it over 300. And a 70.3 would be yeah, 250 or less probably. And are you transitioning to mostly TT riding now because of this compared to maybe you throw in some gravel bike rides or whatever? For the intervals, but not for every ride. I think it's important to keep riding my gravel bike and my road bike and mix it up a little bit. And if you're riding in that position all the time, it gets really, really hard.

I mean, it's a pretty aggressive in arrow position. So the workouts are pretty short. And if you spend more than a couple hours on it, you can get quite uncomfortable. It's not really meant for that. Yeah, we have had to do a couple of small tweaks to her position in the front end, just to make sure that it's UCI compliant because there's like a maximum tilt that you can have your arrow bars at. They can't be too high like into the praying mantis position. and then she's gone a little bit lower,

just try to really maximize this, and she only has to hold the position for 45 minutes and then no running required. I forgot that that was the whole thing with the UCI-T-T position with people racing that. Yeah, it's a whole rigmarole. Yeah, fortunately, Paula already rides a fairly, what you would call slack or further back saddle position,

so we don't have to change that. The rule there is the tip of your saddle has to be five centimeters behind the bottom bracket, and a lot of triathletes are more like five-centimeters. in front of the bottom bracket. And so that's simple at least. But yeah, it'll be sweet. And I forgot you guys have those new watchop bars that you're in.

Yeah, watchup actually has like a UCI measuring tool, which is really cool. And they sent us one so that we can at home kind of do all the measurements and not be guessing and trying to do it with like a ruler and a level and all of that. It's like very exact. And then when you go and take it to the commissiere, whatever they call the people that like the technical officials at bike races, they put it in. the jig and they measure it before the race. So if it's off, then you're kind of screwed. They just like shake their head and you have to scramble to change your bike position five minutes before the race start.

Did they do it last year? Do they do it to every athlete? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to do it. It's very, very important. Wow, that's really cool. Well, I'm excited to see how this whole thing progresses. Do you want to come, Nick? When is it the 22nd?

In 23rd, you just have to fly to Eminton. That would actually be a pretty simple trip. I think I'm racing in San Diego that weekend. Let me check real quick. June 23rd. I'm racing the 25th. Okay, so you could do it. I could do it. I could do it. Okay, let's get on to the question. Let's think about that. Yeah, okay. So first thing here, we're going to do some bike tech with Eric. Bike tech with Eric. So this one's here from Sophia. I like this question. Hi, thanks for your most awesome pod. Love listening to you guys while running. Not to my question. I'm not very good

at taking care of my bike. So I have a bike tech question. If biking around six to ten hours a how often would you say it's necessary to change the cassette? Is there anything else on the bike except the chain that I need to change frequently? So let's focus on that first part. I mean, do you need to change a cassette as often as you need to change chain rings, as often as you need to change the chain?

What do you think, Eric? Theoretically, the cassette should be the least often-changed thing. I think chain rings are pretty hardy and should probably wear out at about the same rate that your cassette wears out. And it is typically a good rule of thumb to do them at the same time. And the reason being if you've got worn out chain rings, that actually wears out your chain more quickly,

and which in turn wears out your cassette. So if you put on a brand new cassette and a brand new chain, but your chain rings are just completely shot, that could wear out the whole drive chain really quickly. So as far as like how often, it's going to be a little bit specific to the person. if you're somebody who like grinds and just sits in two gears on the cassette and doesn't shift that much or if your bike lives on the trainer perpetually and is always in the same gear

because you use erg mode, you might wear out that one gear and have to do the cassette more often. But I don't think there's any reason you shouldn't be able to get a couple of years out of a cassette as long as you're not noticing it start to shift weird or do anything strange and your bike shop doesn't say anything when you take it in for a tune-up. So can you explain to me why these things wear out and why not being good about replacing your chain, wears them out quicker? Yeah, I mean, because it's friction.

So the less often you lube your chain, the less often you change your chain, the more often you ride in dirty situations, like the road grit gets into between all the chain links and then is grinding against the cassette or between the cassette and the chain, between the chain and the chain rings, and that just slowly wears everything down.

So the teeth on your cassette are kind of meant to be shaped like a, they're like a little bit flat on some of them, and they're all shaped specially so that the chain shifts smoothly, but then they eventually all start to look like shark teeth because they've been ground down by the links of the chain. So there's no, like, flat part at the top, right? It's like a point.

Mm-hmm. And so that's when you're just going to start to get the chain skipping around. It's just not going to shift smoothly. And it's just, yeah, you're pretty much done if everything starts to look super spiky. So when people talk about your chain stretching, your train's not actually stretching. It's just wearing out these links between them.

I think it does stretch. So it effectively stretches, but the metal doesn't stretch itself, right? Right. You could just say that the joints are all becoming looser. So the total chain length is stretching, elongating. So what can someone do to make sure that their chain is within the spec that is not prematurely wearing down their cassettes and their chain rings? I think if you just set a reminder on your phone and change your chain every six months. You don't think people should buy like a chain tool, like the chain measuring tool?

You know, to be honest, like having worked at a bike shop, like half the chains that come out of boxes read 50% worn, fresh out of box. So it's like, it can tell you if your chain is super dead, but I would,

like I said, when we're talking about cassettes and chain rings, which could, you know, cassette could be 500 bucks and a set of chain rings could be 500 bucks. Chains are $35. Like,

might as well just replace that a little bit earlier than you need to. It's going to sound great. It's going to feel great. It's going to be faster. So just like do it every six months. Yeah, love that. Cool. Thank you to our podcast supporters for keeping the podcast ad-free. You can support the podcast and you can submit questions for this podcast at that triathlon life.com slash podcast. We love your questions and here's the first one from this week from Nathan. Dear TTL, love all your content. My question is regarding having fluids on the bike. I'll drink like 2.5 to 3 liters on the bike, and that adds a lot of weight. Is it best to carry all that from transition or resupply with fluids along the course at aid stations?

Nathan. It really depends, I think, on the distance of the race. How finicky you are, like your stomach with specific nutrition that you train with. And I don't think that on a flatter course, like adding extra liquid weight is necessarily a bad thing, especially because you're consuming it as you go, so theoretically it's getting lighter as you go. sometimes people like the peace of mind of just having everything on there. I don't love having to grab stuff at aid stations, so personally I'll take everything on with me, but I don't drink quite as much as some people, and I only race the half distance or the 100K.

So I think for an Iron Man, most people lean on the aid stations. You just can't take enough on board. But for a half, you really can do it all in three bottles on your own bike, and then not have to worry about like slowing down, grabbing the bottle, and getting in the kerfuffle of all the people that are trying to do that, you can gain a lot of time by just going around at all. So, I know, personally, I take it all on board with me, even though it's heavier. Eric, you do too, right?

Yeah. Yeah, but also, like, our bikes are right around two hours. Yeah, that's pretty short. Two hours, no problem. If I was riding a three-hour half time, then definitely take something from the aid station. And still, when I go by an aid station, like at least one time, I'm on the bike, I just grab a thing of pure water and try to drink as much of it as quickly as I can and then throw it away or I'll swap it.

You know, if it happens to be the right type of bottle, just for like insurance policy, making sure that I don't dehydrate myself. But like how much does a bottle of water weigh? It's not enough to worry about, oh, I'm going to leave this cage empty and then fill it with a bottle on course. Like, I don't think that's a significant difference. So that's what he's asking. Yeah, I would fill up your bottle cages. but as far as the like... As far as putting a camel back down your suit? Yeah, no. Don't do that.

Just to fill in that gap, you know? Right. Oh, there's... Yeah, that's... Yeah. I think I would go for like the bottle behind the seat and like one between the arrow bars and then if you can get away with two bottles

and then swapping at aid stations and you can keep the bottles off the frame, that's great. Great. Okay. next question here is kind of a fun one. This is from Steve from Tel Aviv. Eric, I think you're going to like this. Hi guys. Love your content across all platforms. You guys are awesome. This one is a hypothetical for Eric. And I'm supposed to read the rest in a dramatic voice. So here we go.

Sunday morning. Day of 70.3 worlds. Weather's perfect. You feel great and ready after months of prep. Looking at the field, you estimate you really have a shot at the podium. This is it. But 10 minutes before the gun goes off, an evil genie pops out and tells you you have to choose one of the following. A, swim the entire swim on Nick's feet. B, bike the entire bike behind Paula, while still obeying all the drafting rules. C, run the half marathon with Flynn on the leash.

What do you choose? I think my best chance is with Flynn. It's not even close. I mean, it's not a hot race. aid. We're just like a dead weight. After about 25 minutes, Flynn is no longer an aide. Yeah, are you going to have to carry him for the last 5K? I mean, what's the deal? Yeah, and also how hot is it? If it was like a colder race like St. George last year, I think he could do it.

But he's pretty, he goes out hard, he overheats quick. So if it's a hot race, I mean, I wouldn't even let you do it if it was a hot race. He might actually die. Yeah. But in terms of like time differences, I think swimming on your feet, Nick, would lose less time than biking on my wheel. Oh, really? Oh, maybe. Okay.

Like, the men's bike splits are more than 10 minutes faster than the women's bike splits. Right. Okay. And then has Flynn ever run a half marathon? Yeah. Off leash. It was snowing. He did a tempo run with me because he accidentally followed me instead of Paula.

But he was fine because it was like actually 33 degrees outside. You're doing a tempo run. So if he did the tempo run in the snow and kept up with you, that means he could for sure do race pace with you as well. As long as it was under 40 degrees, ideally cloudy. Got it. Yeah, I mean, it's like an hour, 15 minutes, an hour, 10 minutes of running. He's done that plenty of times.

It's just like the speed. And also, like, when we're running at our easy pace, it's almost like unnatural for him. And it's this weird gallop where he's not really running and not really walking. So I feel like it might be a more natural stride at your actual race pace. Yeah. I have to make sure he wasn't like pulling. me at any point, pacing would be critical.

Right, right. Wow, cool. I love that. I think my top option would actually be tethered to Nick and dragging Nick through the swim. Perfect. I would love that. Set all my PRs. Swimming in style.

That would be so slow. Eric, we should do a swim run. That would really be a comedic endeavor. Okay. Next question here from Christian. Hi there. I'm from Columbia and I love your podcast. I have a question for you.

Why do most of the pros ultimately use compression socks during the races? What benefit does it have? Saludos, Christian. Is that true? Do you think most pros use compression socks? They're not compression socks. That's why I put this in here. They're arrow-calf sleeves.

Big difference. Yeah, but you got to kind of wear them for the whole thing because they're really hard to put on. So they're only really feasible in a wetsuit swim because in a non-wetsuit swim, they'll just add a lot of drag, the opposite of what they're meant to do on a bike. But they do actually scientifically in testing have some fairly significant watt savings if you have the right ones that fit you really well. And they don't go on your feet, they just literally go on your calves. And I noticed that this year a huge surge in the number of people wearing them.

And they're almost like, they're funny looking, but you don't even really notice them anymore. They're kind of just like a part of a person's kit now. Like Sam Longwears him, Cat Matthews wears them. I don't know. They don't look bad to me, but they're definitely an extra piece of gear. And I think I'd want to do testing to see what the watt savings were before diving into that. But if anyone knows, email Nick. Yeah, that's right. Do you know how effective they are as compression sleeves as well? Like, can they kind of do double duty there? I don't know. You might be able to, but I think the thing with these arrow sleeves are just like the sleeves on our Kosteli kids. it's how they have ribbing on them that's actually designed to disrupt the airflow and make it less sticky with your body versus the compressive nature of it. Like a compression sock is typically going to have like tighter compression at the ankle.

Then it will at the top. The whole idea is to keep blood from pooling. And this is just, you know, a basic sleeve but with fancy ribbed material. And do you feel like this is something that age rupers should look into? I think it's like, I mean, if you're if you're spending like all of this money for these increments, mental watt savings with all these gadgets, you might as well, if they're that much faster. Yeah, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a ceramic rear pulley. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, if it is three watts or whatever, that's similar to a lot of things that cost so much more money. Yeah. Yeah. If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably somewhere between two and five watts. But when I heard that, I'm like, okay, well, then why don't I do that? Why don't you do that?

Why doesn't everyone do that? Well, I guess everyone's doing it. a lot more men than women are doing it. I think you kind of have to test it on yourself. Yeah. Because I bet there's certain people like, oh, your calves are just shaped funny and it doesn't matter, you know? It's like crazy like that. Like two people could be in the exact same position in terms of like where your arm pads are and your hands are and all these things.

But like one person's position could be really fast and one could be slow because your lats are shaped differently. Yeah. Right, right. Okay. Next question here is from Aaron. Question for Sir Nick. I recently got into triathlon post, well, rehab. I'd always been an active person, slightly derailed for a bit,

but it was a good goal for myself to do something to reset. Triathlon for me was a personal goal, and I was completely unfamiliar with everything from T1 to nutritional approaches, let alone the concept of drafting. My first race was Lava Man on the Big Island. Congratulations. I was terrified riding on the freeway about blowing a tire, all things that invade an amateur's mind.

While riding another rider screamed out, stop drafting, something that completely threw me off, and I was just unsure as to what was being critiqued until I got back to my hotel and Googled it. My question is, do you think your exposure to top pros like, but not limited to, Eric and Paula, have skewed your impression of what an age group race is all about. Most recent pod, you were quite vocal about your dissatisfaction of drafting, and it went on to say to limit the age group field. But age groupers are far less knowledgeable on drafting and all other things that may be frowned upon. Like hearing about a potential penalty for water bottle falling out.

Do you think maybe the age group field should be admired for the adversity a lot of athletes are overcoming without attempting to pretend their pros by any means, just trying to do something for themselves? Aaron. Yeah, I read this and I was like, that is a super good point. I do think that 95% of the age group field is just out there trying to accomplish a personal goal and the drafting is not intentional. something that they can't avoid because there's so many people.

I was shocked to hear that, like, this person was not even aware of this concept. That's, so clearly it's not an emphasis in any sort of Iron Man messaging. In every single race that I do, they tell you, here are the USAT rules or here are the rules that we abide by. And in there, there's a drafting. So if you read them, you do know these rules and they're spelled out in plain English. And I don't know. I'm sorry for Aaron that they didn't know that this was a rule. But there are plenty of people out there who do know it's a rule.

Like the people that I was racing against in Morrow Bay, they know the rules. You know, they're finishing in less than five hours. They know the rules. And they're intentionally either they have no choice but to break them or they're intentionally breaking the rules. Yeah, yeah. I do think it's tough because I think that whatever the percentages are, we don't know. But there are a bunch of people who are there to do the thing. It's cool. It's a scene. It's a vibe. I want to do a half Iron Man and they've got aid stations. And it's like I'm relating it to how my dad does centuries. It's a big rolling fun party. And then there's a percentage of people who are there because they saw it on TV and they want to qualify for that. And that is very much a time-based competition thing that Iron Man encourages and fuels. So there are two. These people are all on course at the same time. I would also say that most sporting activities have rules.

And if you go to a soccer game, whether it's a professional game or a weekend game, it has rules. It's like, oh, let them catch the ball with their hands. They're just trying to have fun. It's like, no, it's a soccer. You can't touch the ball with your hands unless you're the goalie. So just because it's like an individual sport that has a start line and a finish line, I don't think that the rules can be completely ignored. And for sure, it matters more in a way for professionals because we're racing for money. and it's our profession.

But for age group athletes who are trying to get the most out of themselves and win in a fair way, there has to be some parameters. And drafting is one of them. And I'm fully on board. When I first read this question, I was like, yeah, you're right. You should be able to do whatever you want. You're just out there trying to get to the finish line for a personal achievement. But I think there are races like that in the world where there are less stringent things.

But if you're going into an Ironman event where people are trying to qualify for World Championships or trying to win their age group, there's got to be some standards across the entire field of racers, age group and amateur. Yeah, and part of not drafting is knowing that you did, like, triathlon is about you doing this individual thing. Exactly what I was going to say. If you drafted intentionally, not intentionally for 80% of the way,

you didn't technically do the whole thing on your own steam. So that just gets into the whole concept behind why trathlon was created. is this like individual endeavor? This is the point. You can go out and you can swim and bike can run by yourself and you can set those distances by yourself. When you get into a race, there's a, I mean, you can tell yourself it's just for yourself, but you're competing against other people, right? This is part of the thing.

So when you do that, you should need to follow the rules that everyone else is also following. Yeah, I think there's probably, there are probably some triathons that are less stringent, like a local try would be a little less. Or there's just less people. so it's a non-issue. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm fully down for just, like, pick out your own 1.2 mile swim,

you know, 56-mile bike, half marathon, and just like go to a... That sounds terrible. I know, but I'm just saying, like, if you want to do the distance and, like, the drafting thing or, like, the, you know, agroness of it turns you off, yeah, either find a local race that's smaller

or do your own thing, whatever. It's like, it's all cool. But to answer the question, Aaron's question, which has my exposure to pros change the way I see triathlon in regards to racing? And I would say no, it has not. I don't race really any differently than I did before, and I don't think I put any more or less pressure on myself. If anything, I feel that just knowing you guys and everyone else you've introduced me to,

and also knowing that the podcast listeners kind of follow my racing a little bit, it's exciting for me. It makes it more fun. It makes my failures feel easier to recover, from and it makes my successes feel even more important. Yeah. Great question. That had us all thinking for a while.

Yeah, I agree, Nick. We're not making you more aware of the rules. You already need them before. No, yeah, yeah. But also don't be so high strong, all right? Just have fun in your next race. I was high strong before. It has nothing to do with you guys.

I don't know why I put that pressure on myself. Honestly, the podcast has made my training and racing so much more enjoyable since the podcast. So I'm really happy with that. Aw. That's why we can't skip the pod. Nick Needs it. I need it.

Okay, next question here is from Sophia. You talked about it in the last episode that helmets wear out, even if not crashing with them. I've never heard this before. I have a Casco helmet from 2019, never crashed. Do I actually need to buy a new one to be safe?

Sophia. So I did some research here. Sophia, for you, I looked at the Costco website, and this is exactly what they say. The maximum period of use is eight years from the date of production, see sticker inside helmet. Depending on the intensity of the sport, a helmet should be replaced for safety purposes after every three to five years from first use. So eight years from production, but three to five years from first use. Users should also understand that the helmet's protective function is diminished after a hard impact or jolt, even if no damage can be seen. This is true for all helmets, by the way.

It is strongly recommended that the helmet is to be replaced for safety reasons. Replacement is also needed if the helmet no longer fits correctly or damages are clearly visible visible. It is recommended that after the expiration of the period of use and even without visible damages that the helmet is to be replaced, check your helmet regularly for visible damages. Smaller scratches do not reduce the protective effect of your helmet. And just for fun, I also checked specialized helmet, like the avail. And it said the same thing. Specialized says three to five years. Yeah. And if you think about that, that's only like 2018. It's not that long ago.

I know. It's not long. For the long end of that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. 2020 for the short end. And I don't think it's necessarily dependent on how often you use it. I think that over time, the materials might degrade or they're in the sun more or maybe you've dropped it a couple times. Your sweat, exactly. So they do lose kind of their initial protective properties. And then also over eight years, the technology of how long. develops. And I think helmets now are better than they were 10 years ago. So it's a worthwhile investment for sure, especially with the increase in like bike car interactions and all the scary things that we're hearing about more and more. It's for sure worth it. And also like helmets from eight years ago just don't look cool anymore. You gotta get a new one. You gotta look cool. You gotta look cool, guys. Yeah, the biggest thing for this is TT helmets because you don't really wear them that much.

So I feel like after eight years or after five years, it doesn't feel old yet. It's still like almost a brand new helmet you've only maybe worn it 10 times. But the same thing goes, would you say? Yeah, exactly. It's not about that like, it's not about the amount of times you've worn it. And I think five years is still, that's a long time. Like five years for sure, you should be getting a new helmet. And not to be said that if it's at five years like, oh, I guess I just won't wear this helmet anymore because it's not protective. Of course, it's still more protective than not wearing it. But that foam in there is not as good at absorbing impact. And it's, it's your brain we're talking about here. So it doesn't matter how fast your legs go if your brain doesn't work. Yeah. One other thing I want to say about this is like traveling with a helmet. Some people will put them in their suitcase or in their bike bag and that gets banged up a lot in travel. So if you are going to put it in your suitcase, make sure it's really protected and padded or just carry it on. Eric and I always carry helmets on the plane with us just to make sure it's safe. But even if you drop it from a certain distance up, that's considered impact. And in that case, it should be

replaced. So little things like that. I also think that helmets are like one of the coolest things that you can like change your look with that actually like they're on your face. They're right above your eyes where everyone sees you. So it's a cool thing to be able to replace every whatever three, four, five years to keep it feeling fresh. And it's safe and they're aerodynamic. Anybody gives you grief just to be like, I'm, damn, trying to be safe. Take my brain seriously. Oh, feed buy an expensive one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, that seems like the fourth helmet you've bought in the last four years. Well, it was really odd in Colorado to see a bunch of people riding around. motorcycles without helmets. That is so strange to see. I've seen several people riding around here on their super fast e-bikes without helmets. The commuting mentality for some people. Hitting the ground at 30 miles an hour is still hitting the ground at 30 miles an hour. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. So yeah, everyone get nice new helmets. That's our advice for this week.

Yeah, this is your permission to go buy a new helmet. Actually, we want to direct you the specialized website. Yeah. And here's a link that you could use that will. give us some money. Just kidding, just kidding. Okay, great. Next question here is from Laura. Hey, all, I've noticed I got lower back pain when I swim sometimes. I don't have anyone I swim with to see if my body is out of line, so I'm not sure if I'm arching my back.

Could this be a sign that I have a weak core, or is there a drill I can do to make sure my body is staying in line and not arching my back? Is arching my back even a thing that could happen? I used to coach high school diving and would always see the swimmers on deck doing hollow body exercises, and I really don't feel like I keep that shape in the water. Curious of your thoughts. Thanks, Laura. 100% possible that you are arching your back. Planks. Like, Planx is the number one exercise, I think, for maintaining that core rigidity

and doing a, like, lift one arm up, lift the other arm up, trying to maintain integrity in the bow of your boat, essentially as it moves through the water. And you can just do that in the gym, like sideways next to a mirror and make sure that your, you know, core looks straight and as it should be. And you can, I like to, when I do a plank, I'll do that. And I like to look over and see, like if I tuck my belly button in, if I let my hips drop, you know, like kind of mess around with it and sort of feel what it feels like to let your back arch and then pull it back into straight. And just because that's what ultimately you're going to be trying to do in the water. Yeah, I think that if possible you're not thinking about it in the water. If you,

do the strengthening out of the water. You don't want to be thinking about like flexing your abs when you're swimming. But if you do have some like core strength around your hips and your abdominals and all of that, then you will stay flatter. And I think the lower back pain is probably coming from like a banana shaped in the water, even if it's subtle. It's different than walking, obviously. You're in this horizontal position. You don't spend a lot of time in it except when you're swimming. So even a slight extra curvature of your spine will create lower back pain. I've actually had this happen to me before. If I do a really long swim, I'll get out in my lower back is like aching. So it's, I think she already said the answer. It's like it directly impacted by kind of like

your core strengthening, I think, is the solution. What kind of things, you guys grew up swimming? What kind of things did you guys have to do for dry land for swimming, if any? Yeah, just like all the classic stuff, like planks and pushups. And we would do like cords, like bands, wrapped around like a doorway. kind of a thing and pull those down like you're doing butterfly. I think the biggest thing that I did as a swimmer that I don't really do anymore is like pre-swim activation. Because when you're just a swimmer, you're not really doing any land exercise for training necessarily.

So we'd get on deck 30 minutes early and we do like some skipping and we do planks and we just make sure we were really warm and activated before you even start swimming. And you don't need to do that extensive of a warm up. But say you have five minutes extra on deck and you're going to do some planks just to activate yourself before you get in. It's not necessarily about strengthening it. It's just more about getting it firing. And then when you dive in, it's ready to go. And that might alleviate some of that, like, sway back thing that you got going on in the water. It's funny because when I hear this, I think when you think of that banana shape, right?

Right. Like arching back, low hips in the water. It feels like the exact opposite of what I've been trying to do with my swimming and it has been working, which is to try to keep a lower head and try to suck that belly button up towards my spine and keep higher. your hips. Same thing. Yeah. I just feel like

fixing this problem for Laura might also make her a much faster swimmer, not just alleviate the back pain. Yes, for sure. I agree. A better body position

will make you faster. Yeah. A good cue I've always liked that is, instead of thinking like try to not be a banana in the water is thinking about pressing from your sternum into the water.

And that just will automatically sort of tighten your core and get your head down and do a lot of good things. Or even what Nick was just talking about, about getting his head down, like that'll naturally bring your hips up as well. So that could be a cue to counteract like a teeter-totter your body. Head down should be neutral position as if you're

walking. We don't want to like change the chest. It might feel like you're diving it down further. It feels funny. It feels funny, but I noticed as soon as I do that, my hips just boop come right up and everything feels way better. Get a friend of the pool with you as a GoPro or something like so you can get a little bit of feedback someday. Yes. Yes. Super helpful. And I would say the pull boy is a crutch. Don't necessarily just throw that in because your back is hurting because that'll naturally bring your hips up, obviously, but you want to be able to do that without a pullboy. Yeah. Cool. Next question here is from Katie. Hi, Paul, Eric and Nick. I have a quick question regarding PSI for tires, a subject that I know you have covered a lot, but I couldn't recall the

specific circumstance. This is a bike check with Eric, Nick? It's kind of bike tech with Eric, but I think it's a more simple question than that. Okay. I don't think we need all of Eric's expertise for this. Okay. Let's hear it. Because I think there's a misunderstanding here. I took the advice of the pod and did the calculation at SRAM's website. I'm writing Zip 454s, and it said I should be at 57 and 60 PSI, which is a shock to me because I normally just inflate them both to 90. I love to hear this, by the way, just a quick interruption. I love it. Like, I knew that people were inflating their tires to like 90 or 100 still. So it's nice that we're helping people be faster and also have better traction. It's great. So the question is,

is, I'm traveling for the first time for 70.3, which is in Boulder. Should I be adjusting the tire pressure even more since I'm coming from quite literally sea level? And how much do you deflate your tires for the plane ride since I ride 90? I was going to deflate them down to 50, but with the calculation for Sram that I should be at 60, now I'm wondering if they should be totally flat. Also, do you have plans to go to Boulder 70.3 this year? Thank you so much, Katie. So it's kind of interesting that Katie, like, I think there's a little bit of misunderstanding. here about what happens in the flight or like when you should be inflating or deflating your tires. Yeah. Yeah. So that was definitely more of a concern back when we were all told to inflate our

tires to the limit, which, you know, back in the day was like 120 PSI. So obviously, well, the concern there is that you're going to explode your tire when it gets up to the lower pressure in the airplane. Now, you're like going to be running 60 PSI from now on, right? The limit of what that tire can handle as I'm sure is still much closer to 110 or something. So you're nowhere near it exploding on the airplane with it at 60 PSI. So no concern. Yeah, we never deflate our tires in the airplane, do we? No. And like tubeless tires typically lose 5 PSI overnight anyway. So it's just it's just really, really not a concern. The bigger concern would be you getting to the race and your tubless tire not being seated anymore and you have to take it to a bike shop because it's come off

the rim. That's no good. That's bad. And then as far as like the way that pressure works. If you're at altitude, same pressure because it's pressure is a measurement of the difference between the type, the pressure of the air inside of the tire and the pressure outside of the tire. And if you're higher, it's just, it's all reset. It's normalized. Even on the top of Mount Everest, you should still be running 60 PSI. It's going to act the same. But it is shockingly low. If we're super wrong and some physicist writes in like, I can't wait. I can't wait. That would be wild. But, uh, that's my understanding of physics. For me, the biggest change in mentality has been how low you run tubeless tires versus tubes.

Like when Eric's doing my tires before a race even, it's pretty low, especially when you get into the zip hookless wheels that have no hook and the 28s are just like running flush to the wheel. The pressure is so low. And part of that is like lowering the rolling resistance because it's not bumping over all the bumps. It's kind of absorbing the shock of the road. So that actually is faster. It's like counterintuitive in my brain and I don't fully get it, but I trust it. Yeah, it just feels wrong because I remember when you would like, for me, and I would like leave my bike for a week and a half or whatever, come back, I'd be like, whoa, the pressure's all the way down to 60th. That's crazy. I almost went out riding like that. Now it's like, you should be riding 60, bro. But if you have a tube in, you have to have it higher. Otherwise, you're more likely to flat, right? It's different, but it's not that much higher. Like, if you're riding 28s on modern wheels, it's still not that much higher.

Okay. It's like has to do with the width of it. And if you have old wheels that are narrow, this does not apply to you. Yeah. This is, this is, this is. This is. This is. in relation to new wider rim profiles. Yeah, cool. Well, hopefully we cleared that up for you, Katie. Next question here is from Brock in Minnesota. Hey, also, I have two rolling 70.3s coming up. Milkman and Madison, both in Madison. My question is how to approach the bike.

Should I hold the same power on the hills and flats? I know in listening to other podcasts, to gain time, you go faster in the flats, but just curious as how you guys, from all your perspectives, would approach it. My bike is my strongest discipline. If that changes anything, thanks. Brock.

So I like this. You go fastest on the flats. Of course you go fastest on the flats, right? It doesn't, even the strongest people in the world. I think he meant you go like more power. I don't know. But that's just not correct, though. So I'm curious of what he thinks.

I mean, you're not putting out more power on the flats than you're on the climbs. I think maybe what this is whatever podcast we listened to was getting at is like if you go really hard on the climbs and then cannot put out as much power on the flats, that's not worth it. I think riding the smoothest power possible is still going to be the best. The one thing that I might do is really try to maintain momentum. So push a little bit higher power right at the beginning of these hills to try and carry some momentum off of the flat. But certainly nothing that's going to decrease a total amount of power that you can hold for the whole roller. Yeah, basically, Paulo said to me in Chattanooga, because it was a rolling course with a lot of up and down rollers,

was you are either riding above X watts or you're riding zero watts. So it's like so steep that you're just like tucking and resting. I guess you're not allowed to tuck anymore, but you're just, you know, staying arrow and going downhill as fast as you can. But you're not peddling like 180. Oh, yeah.

So you're either going hard on the downhills or you're not pedaling and you're never spiking above X watts. Because if you do all these spikes that are super high, you're going to fry your legs for the run. So even on climbs, it feels good to get out of the saddle and kind of hammer up it. You're just burning matches and burning matches. Even though it doesn't feel like it at the time, you'll feel it later. So like Eric said, maintaining the smoothest power curve as possible, naturally there'll be some rising downs. But don't waste time in like the 100 to 200 watt range.

Well, depending on, I mean, that's a lot of people's race pace. So don't waste time in something that's like your zone two range going downhill, maybe. So I think like what are we basically just saying pedal your race power until you spin out and then you're coasting? Yes. Right. So are you saying that people should not be intentionally having a little more power on climbs? You think people should be trying to hold the same power on the flats as on the climbs? Because it sounds like that's what you're saying.

I mean, ideally, but it's never going to happen. You're always going to have a little more on the climbs. But if you can keep it the same, that's probably good. Like the key here is like, let's say I race it an average of 300 watts. I'm not going 390 up the climb. Yeah. I'm like maybe I'll set myself a ceiling of 320 knowing it's a one to two minute hill. Yeah.

Knowing that that's like fully within my capacity, but I couldn't, you know, for two minutes. I like that plan personally just because I know that for me, if I'm going so slow that I can sit up without much of an aerodynamic penalty, let's say like below whatever 15 or 13 miles an hour. I can feel more comfortable putting out 20 or 30 watts sitting up than I would down an arrow at that same power. So for me, I always set myself like a limit to how much I can push when I'm climbing because I can feel that I want to do so much more. But I do think it's, at least my perception has been, it makes me race faster. My time is better when I can push a little more in the climbs and, of course, try to be a little more controlled. Especially if you're out of the saddle, like you're saying. there's a lot of climbs where you can ride in arrow

and in that case a huge spike might not be as good and I think the major thing here is that if if you are able to push race power after doing what you just said immediately with no hesitation and be totally fine then it's worth it but if you go like I said from 300 to 350 and then you get to the top of the climb and you're riding 260

for even 30 seconds it was not worth it okay that's interesting because you burned because you burned a little bit of a match and you're losing that time that you just gained. So it's okay to push a little bit more, but it cannot come at the expense of the power that you would be pushing when you're back on the flats. That's the way that I like to think about it.

And this is, of course, where I'm imagining a rolling course, not something that has five-plus minute climbs. Me too. Right. Oh, I see. Right. Very course dependent. Yeah, that's interesting. And I am curious about how long these little climbs are because some of the climbs in Wisconsin

were like four or five minute long climbs. Well, I think in that case, especially you shouldn't be going too high. If you do a five-minute effort, 50 watts above your waist pace, that's very hard. And I usually try to take advantage of those hills to get my nutrition in,

so I'm not doing it while I'm in there. Yeah. And there's some, sorry, not to like beat a dead horse, but there's an aspect of racing as well, especially in the professional field. if someone's doing an attack or if someone's like obviously you have to read the race and go with it and not be like married to your power. Same in the age group races, I guess, right? Not as much, I would say.

You're more, unless you're trying to be top three or whatever. Yeah, but sometimes when you're in a pack, it's like kind of freeing to not even look at the power and just kind of like do the race. That's true. That's something as well. That's true. Yeah. And then our last question here is from Sarah. Hi, Paula, Eric and Nick.

Also hi to Flynn, although this question is just for the humans. actually humans. I've heard you mention a couple of times that if a flat tire on a training ride is bad enough, you'd just call an Uber. And I always wonder, how does this work with a bike in tow? Do you make sure that Uber is a minivan or truck? Do all Uber's in Bend automatically come with bike racks?

I'm so curious to know whether this ability to find Uber that can transport a bike is a feature of living in the outdoorsy bike-friendly locale, or if there's just some hidden Uber secret I have been missing out on when I've gotten a flat and made my husband drive 30 miles to come pick me up the cornfields outside in Indianapolis. Thanks, Sarah. So first of all, do you guys have Uber and Bend? I'm sorry, that's kind of a, I don't mean to be insulting.

I mean, it's not as prolific as L.A. But. Yeah, there's super. And I think that, like, if you take both wheels off of a bike, it can fit in almost any car. Yeah. But you have to have the tools to be able to do it. If you got a disc, you got to, like, you know, unscrew them. I guess like Uber XL is probably a safer bet.

That's the best bet. If your city has Uber XL, they're big cars that will definitely fit your bike. but I have gotten away every time with not doing Uber XL. Like, for example, my car, which is a sedan, if I put the seats back, I can fit a road bike and a TT bike in the back. It just comes down to your level of comfort and how much you've got money matters to you versus asking an Uber person to fold all of the seats down in their car.

I just call them. As soon as I book the ride, I call them because they give you a number and I say, hey, I got a flat tire, so I need to put a bicycle in the back. Do your seats go all the way flat? and that they'll tell you either yes, no, or I don't feel comfortable doing that. I'm canceling this ride. Oh, that's a good point, Nick. I didn't know you could actually call them. This person asked the right person.

Yeah. Well, it's happened to me twice. Where you just didn't have the tools to fix it? Yeah, I forget what it was. It was one was I had just let someone else borrow a tube on a ride and I only bring one tube on a ride. I don't remember what the other one was. But I do remember in the second one, someone yelling at me, go tubeless. And I did go tubeless on my TT bike after that, actually.

We actually haven't had to do this here because fortunately between, you know, Paula being able to call me or me being able to call Paula or we have quite a few friends here who work from home with jobs that don't have like, I don't know, they're not in meetings the whole time. So there's quite a few people we can text before it comes to Uber. Yeah. But with tubeless, we hardly ever get flats, knock on wood. I can't even remember the last time. The last time I got a flat is when I got a flat, it's sealed, so I was fine. And then I used that wheel on my next ride and it kind of unsealed. But I was only on Skyliner, which is, you know, like a five-minute drive.

That's right. That's right. By the way, Kate, brought out a spare wheel to you with the moped. Yeah, that was fun. I remember that. So those are all our questions for this week. First of all, I just want to say that our episode last week was our most popular episode ever. And we really appreciate everyone listening. and I think some people sent the episode to their friends and stuff, which is really nice.

That always helps a lot. Also, leaving a review on iTunes helps. And someone this week who leaves a review is going to get free bottles. And Chris Peters from Tampa, Florida, message me, and we'll make sure that you get your free bottles, too, for being a podcast supporter. That's all it. Yeah, just if that's confusing to someone, we're going to pick a random name. Every month and or when we get new cool things. Yeah, good idea.

Good idea. Oh, I just wanted to give a cool real quick shout out to Hank Whalen, who is a long time. I know, Hank. I feel like we need to have a name for people who have messaged us and we've become friends with but never met before. Like on Instagram. Because like Nick and I have both had. Like, Lindy Kent. Lindy Kent, of course.

Great example. We haven't met you, but we feel like we know each other through Instagram direct message. Anyway, I didn't, Nick wasn't able to come because he was racing last weekend to our races, but just randomly out of the blue. Hank Whalen reaches out and says, hey, I'm an amateur, hobbyist, camera person. Would it be okay if I came and filmed some of your race? So the race footage from X-Dera and of the bulk of the race footage from Paula's event came from Hank, who randomly... Wait, Hank did Paula's race too? Yeah, he came all the way to Chattanooga.

Whoa. And stayed for my race. Yeah, insane. Yeah. There's also footage in there from Toffer Riley, who shoots for Iron Man. So there's a little bit of both. But anyway, massively, massively exceeded my expectations. You know, when someone's like, oh, I have a camera.

Can I come take some pictures? You're like, okay, yeah, you know, it's better than nothing. Yeah, right. I really appreciate it. But Hank crushed it. So a lot of that video. Thank you, Hank. Yeah, and there is a new YouTube video up now that you can watch a recap.

Go watch that. Yeah. It's so good. Yeah, we'll talk to you guys next week. Eric will be Racin Alcatraz. Maybe we'll do a little Alcatraz preview. Yeah. And if anyone is a professional videographer living in San Fran, reach out to Eric.

That's right. Because Nick's also not going to go into that. Yeah, sorry. I'm going to be in New York for back-to-back weddings. But yes, that would be, Eric's going solo. So if anyone is in San Fran and wants to like... Solo hit Mish. Cheer for him or whatever.

That would be amazing. Yeah, defend his title. Defend the title, Eric. Yeah, I'm just getting in, jumping off a boat and going home. Nice. Nice. Great. See next week, everyone.

Hi. Bye.