That Triathlon Life Podcast - Back to Kona: Ironman brings men and women’s full distance world championships together again

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

This week we’ve got big news — Ironman is bringing both men’s and women’s racing back to Kona on the same day, just like the glory days! We kick things off with that spicy update, dive into some swim-themed rapid fire, and then answer your listener-submitted triathlon questions. This week we covered:What happens to a pro’s wheel after a neutral support swap? How to stay fit when your next race is... nearly a decade awayThe great debate: underwear or no underwear under run shorts?Rockin’ a trisuit at a gravel race — good idea or fashion faux pas?Paula’s perfect mix of trail, road, and everything in betweenWhy Eric and Paula moved to Bend, ORA 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/podcastThe Advenire

Hey, everyone, welcome to the TTL podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. This is our triathlon podcast. We are doing the normal thing. Paul and I are here in Ben for a one split moment before I jump in the van and drive down to St. George, and we do that whole freaking thing. It's the last time St. George 70.3 is going to happen, so it's going to be a big, exciting one. I'm just kind of like prefacing this a little bit because I'm not sure. what the podcast situation is going to be like next week. There are, there are some things that are a mist that are bubbling, percolating. But we're going to do our normal show this week and

get right into it. Paula, how's your thirst, would you say right now? I'm so thirsty. Do we really want to open that can of worms? What do you have? What kind of beverage do you have next to you right now? This is the Paula Finley special. I asked Eric if you'd go get me a glass of water, which they boys think is completely ridiculous that I would ask them to do me a favor like that when I'm perfectly capable of getting my own water. Correct. But I don't know if couples can relate to this.

Sometimes it just feels nice to have your significant other do something nice. Of course, it feels nice. It feels nice every time. Sometimes. So he went downstairs and found like an old glass. An old. You had it at dinner. Yeah, like an hour ago.

A old glass of fizzy water that was, is not. now flat and he just added tap water to it to fill it. No, no. I took a bottle of water that's been in the fridge that has been chilling and added it to that thinking, okay, this is like lemon infused water because we're out of lemonade. Anyway, it tastes so bad. This is my life, everyone. We should take this out of the podcast.

It makes me sound like an evil monster. No, we should leave it in there. Oh, interesting. Interesting. No, I think it's going in. All right. So I guess that's a great kickoff to you. if you're new here, Paul and I are both professional triathletes.

So we work together and live together and train together, which is our work. So it's exciting. Nick is a, he doesn't live with us, contrary to popular belief. He's a professional musician living in L.A. and an amateur triathlet. So I think we got a good little tripod of viewpoints here to bring to the... I'm an all-American triathlete now, by the way. You freshly crowned All-American, USA Triathlon All-American. Congrats, dude.

Thank you. I just want to dispel some... It's like stolen valor. I think the way that U.S.A.T. calculates it as long as you are in the top 10% of your age group and have done three U.S.AT races, that is enough to qualify you as all-American. So it's not this crazy accolade to be... Dude, top 10% in the country. Is an Iron Man race considered a U.S.A.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And you're in like... You've got to be in the most competitive age group at this point. Yeah, 35, 39, I think is, I think between 30. Yeah, it's, I mean, okay. I'm on a triathlon podcast. It's like half of my life.

I think it's not that. Anyway, thank you. Thank you, Eric. I appreciate that. Yeah, you're welcome. I feel like both of you have this thing where you just like to, like, crap on your on yourselves for like the things that you've done and be like, oh, I'm not that good. And I just, I'm going to be here and I'm saying, you know what?

It's really amazing. Think about how many people there are in the world and where you're at and what you're doing. Thank you, Eric. I think if it's a problem. I think if anyone likes to get a It might be No, no, no, dude, I Completely different expression

Can we tell the people about that? No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Here it came back from South America with an No. You can, I'm not putting this in. I'm not putting this in. You can tell us to hurry it yourself if you want.

I'm not putting this in. It's like, 2.30 in the morning. Oh, my God. And it's like, yeah, basically, turn them to a crisp. I want them to come out

like they were on the surface of the sun. Nuclear size. Extra please. Oh, yeah, that's good. Okay. Where are we? Where were we? Oh, yeah. Thank you, Eric. That's right. I think we wrapped up the intro.

We did. We did. We wrapped up the intro. We should leave that in. There would be a lot of bleeping necessary for that. Maybe I'll go crazy with the bleeper. If you feel so inclined, do it just for us, because that'll put a smile on my face. Yes, I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. Okay, so Eric, as Eric was saying,

we're going to be in St. George next week. I will be there as well. By the way, I thought I was for sure not racing. Paul, I told you earlier today. I don't want to give away our source, but there's a chance tomorrow I'll find out if I might actually still be racing. Wow, right down to the wire.

Right down to the wire. I mean, I feel ready. What an roller coaster. Yeah. This takes me back to the COVID days of will we race? Will we not race? Should we get on the plane? Should we not get on the plane?

I mean, I kind of love the idea of just being able to watch Paula race, but if I can race too, that would be fun. Yeah, so we should tell everybody that we are staying at the advent of, Hotel for our third time now, which is the perfect hotel right by the finish line. And it's seriously our favorite place to stay. We're going to do a TTL shakeout run and brunch on Friday morning starting at 8 a.m. Eric and Nick will be leading the run. And if you want to join us for

brunch after at Woodash Rye, which is the restaurant at the Adveneer, I think they're doing a little like buy one, get one half off type of situation. So especially if you're not racing, come and load up on the breakfast before the race, or if you are racing. Nick and I will definitely be brunching. A hundred percent. We'll be there. I don't know how many people consider our table with us, but we'll be brunching.

Yeah, it's kind of like a meat and greet. I don't know. We can chat and whatever it is. The chit chatting will happen before and during the run for sure. And then, you know, everybody's, dog's got to eat. dog's got to eat That's right Do we know if they have any rooms left

Because it really is the ideal It's right right next to the finish And it's... I doubt it But I would normally say Make sure you just like Get on there and book it for next year Except Oh there is no next year

Yeah there is no next year But it's a great hotel period And it's right in the heart of St. George You know what you can do Even if it is full I think it's worth going to that restaurant We end go for cocktails and drinks If you're a cocktail person

They got this thing on the menu Hopefully they still have it That's like a smoky thing. And I took the most, one of my top 10 pictures I think that have ever taken of this smoky cocktail. So freaking cool. I would get that. Yeah, love that. That thing is so cool.

Right, because it comes with like the smoke is in an upside down cup or something. I think it's like a cedar plank or some sort of a type of a wood plank. I've had a drink like this before. And they basically like light the underside of it on fire or like light the side of it, whatever, the underside of it on fire with a blow torch. So it gets like really starts getting the smoke of the. of the cedar going, and then they, like, put it on top of the glass and then bring it over to you,

and then they pull it off, and there's just, like, the glass has gotten all smoked and everything, and you do actually get this smoky nest as you take your first sip. And it's, I mean, it's also very cool. It's a cool show. Speaking of shows, right across the street,

are we going to talk about that? I don't know. There are still rooms available, by the way. Okay, there are. Great. So if you don't have a place to stay, this is the place to stay. We've stayed there before,

and it's absolutely ideal. Yeah, it's like the seabird at Oceanside. It's the right there. Yeah, that feels like the right equivalent. Makes your life so simple. If you have the means. We're going to have a link for the Adveneer in the description as well. So if you need a place to stay, that is a place to stay.

And apologies confirm that they do have some rooms left. That's crazy. Okay, Eric, normally, you know, so we're recording this on Wednesday, by the way, the day before the podcast comes out because you guys were on the coast and there was some travel days and then I had plans last night. But I'm really glad that we waited. because officially, and I think we had heard some rumblings about this,

but officially today, Iron Man made a big announcement regarding full-distance Iron Man World Championship locations, and we'll get to that in a second. We were going to talk about Alex Yee's marathon, and we were going to talk about Iron Man, Texas, both which felt like exciting things by themselves, but this news about the location of Iron Man World Championships feels like it's kind of more important.

the biggest news in Ironman that we've had. Let's just get to it, man. Let's freaking go. I'll let you say it. Cona. The real Cona, the full Cona, men and women, boys and girls. It's happening.

It's back for 2026. Same day, one day, together, vintage Iron Man triathlon. Yes. Freaking exciting. You know, I have personally felt like since they made this decision, it felt just,

ah, like scary. Like, is this going to work out for, Iron Man and for our sport because this is just the pinnacle event. It's like them taking unbound and gravel and just saying, oh, you know what, never mind. It's in South Africa. It's the same. Don't worry.

It's the same. No, we all got emotionally attached about this course. I should probably be more informed, but does this, is there something about age group athletes? There's going to be less women than men because it's going to be proportionate to the number of entries, which has caused what I've read a little bit of controversy amongst the amateur side. Correct. Because there's just less spot. for women. And I can't really decide how I feel about that. I think it's so clear that there's

less women that do triathlon than men. That's not the ideal. Obviously, we wanted to be 50-50 or even more women than men, but that's just the reality. So I think in order to be fair to the, you know, proportional number of athletes racing, it's maybe the only way to do it in order to hold the event in one single day there. And I'm sure that the decision is based a little bit on Cohen up pushing back on having a two-day event where the women are Thursday and the men are Saturday, that puts a really big strain on the community there. And a lot of people already don't like that it's there, the locals. So I think there has to be some compromise somewhere, always. That's just the reality. And in this case, it's maybe just making the fields for the women smaller on the age group side.

It's proportional to the amount of entries per age group. That's what they're keeping. We are all for more women in the sport. We would love for it to be fully 50-50. But that's not where it is right now. And I think we are trending in that direction, but it's just not there now. And I just, like, my personal feeling is that there are a lot of things that Iron Man and that, like, the sport and the participants in it, women that are in it, men that everybody can do

to try to encourage more women to be in it. And I don't think that just making the, you know, the number of people that's towed the line at World Championships would have as much of an impact as like a focused, you know, like initiative in some other area to like recruit or make it appear more,

you know, Iron Man more appealing to women or whatever. I agree. I share the same opinion with that. There's probably a better way to get more women excited and involved in the sport than just having more slots for World Championship. championships. Yeah.

Yeah, but I think that they're, Texas, if you watch the broadcast, there was really good coverage of both the men and the women. I think it's a long enough race that it's completely possible to give women the spotlight they deserve in the broadcast. And that was the concern with a lot of women who were pushing for their own day of racing was that the men overshadow the women. Back to pro women, no. Back to pro women, yes. So I think that the coverage will be equal. the races are just as exciting normally for the pro men

and the pro women, sometimes even more for the women. So yeah, it's a good thing, I think. I haven't seen any bad things about it except for the amateur women. That is the same, yeah. I think this is huge positive. I do think that I'm not alone.

I don't think it's just us three and I don't think it's just the listeners of the podcast. I think in general, people who follow pro triathlon follow the men's and the women's equally. They're both, and not because they want to be, you know, feminists, they're not because it's genuinely they're interested in it. Yeah, you know what?

I think this is very similar. Paula made a comment the other night. We were wishing that the Oilers, our favorite hockey team from Edmonton, were playing, and they weren't, and we tried to get into watching the, I don't know who we were trying to watch on the TV instead, and we just couldn't get into it. And Paul was like, I just don't care about it unless the Oilers are playing. And I feel like this is the same thing with pro-traathlon or pro sports of any sort,

It was like, is Paula racing? Is Lucy racing? Is Lionel racing? Is Gustav? Like, there are these personalities that you want to see race. And it doesn't matter if they're a man or a woman or whatever. Like, if they're exciting to watch race or you feel some sort of emotional connection to them, you're going to tune in. Totally.

Totally. Should we do a lap on the Oilers? Are we just going to? Well, right now, the series is three, two, right? No. Yeah, but. So we're doing a lap on it. So it's best of seven game.

Like we all talk about it? You know, Pat Lemieux says this on the ProTri News. It's like, yeah, we're going to do a little talk about it. Yeah, okay. Okay, got it, got it, got it. Okay, we're doing a pat. We're doing a laugh on the Oilers. Oh, lap and a Pat.

Nobody cares about the, I mean, everyone cares about the Oilers if you're an Oilers fan, but if you're not, then this doesn't matter that much. But I think it is applicable to triathlon in some ways. Here's why. It's best of seven for this playoff matchup against the L.A. Kings. LA won the first two games, dominantly. Like just not even close. They were a better team.

It did not look good. It was looking like the L.A. was going to get through to the next round. Oilers will be out. Then the Oilers come back. The first half of the third game, sucking, like three points behind. And then they catch up and they win in overtime. Fourth game. Close game.

Oilers win it. So now it's tied the series two two. Third game, Oilers win it. So they persevered through this insane doubt that everyone was putting on them and that they probably had in themselves. And they're probably going to win the series now. They're up three, two, and they have the momentum. And it takes four games to win in advance to the next round.

So I just think that that kind of ability to put what happened in the past totally behind you and have belief that you're good and work together. And it's just really inspiring for me to watch. I love that. It doesn't, it's not about hockey at this point. It's like about being a team, about, having belief and there's a bunch of fans in the stands in the Oilers game that say we believe yeah it's like that's such a good this is what eric was yelling at you on the ocean side course

he was like he was like anything could happen just keep going keep being also reminds me of the eric the the coca donna film that wadi sent us one of the guys was saying that he was doing this 200 mile race and he was 10 miles behind like uh killing jorne and jim walmsley in this race and then he ended up, and he was not feeling good, and he ended up catching both of them and winning one year. It's like you just never, you really don't know. And in endurance sports, oh my gosh, you really, you really don't know. You can just go through multiple highs and lows through a race.

Endurance sports, team sports, sports that are super fast like hockey, and so much of it depends on the momentum that you get as a team and your ability to work cohesively together with everyone. And you can really see a change in the energy of the entire team when they start getting this momentum. and it's so addicting to watch. I am absolutely obsessed with it. I am a total fan.

And I think that those NHL players deserve all of the millions of dollars that they make. Which there are many millions. It's many millions. They deserve what they're making. They also play like 140 times a year. It's ridiculous. It's not like baseball. They play a bunch, but baseball are like, okay.

You're like standing out in the outfield. No offense. You don't have me sweating. Yeah. in baseball. It's so stressful. Yeah, they play until like 10pm and then you got to try to sleep.

Anyway, what else are we going through in the news? That was a great lap. Well, I had mentioned about Alex Yee, who is the, I forget who said this. Someone said that like,

Alex E ran the fastest marathon that anyone who has ever even completed a triathlon has ever run. Oh, that's a good idea. Probably true. Probably true. Like, who's run a 211 marathon who has even

swam, you know? Right. It's so fast. It was a little outside of the range he wanted to run, which is like between 207 and 210, but he's still good enough for 14th place at a major. So really impressed. And it feels like one of our own doing one of those big sports

that, I don't know, like marathon feels like this huge, very specific thing. He represented us well. I think it's just always interesting and exciting to see somebody step, like from triathlon, you know, like, oh, wow, he's seen. really fast and Hayden Wild seems really fast but then you finally get the

opportunity to see them stack up against real legit people who have dedicated their entire life to one sport I mean that's always going to be fun it's fun it's like seeing Paula do the TT same thing really like see see she really is strong it's not just us not just in our own little

ecosystem yeah it's fun and then the last thing was just Iron Man Texas Cat Matthews broke the Iron Man record which is it's kind of a strange thing to think about in that way but it's still really cool

basically we have to explain that really really fast I think it's just because people in Roth or challenge races have gone faster than she went but in any Iron Man race she went faster than anyone ever before which is crazy

every course is different every day is different so it's not like running a fast five can at track regardless an amazing performance insanely inspiring good across all three things similar to the Oilers perseverance to the end

and it paid off. Also, I think all three of us picked Cat as our winner last week. Is that right? I think I might have picked Chelsea, but she unfortunately got sick. Yeah, she didn't start. Maybe she'll be in St. George. Then I won't pick her. Yeah.

Right, of course. Of course. Okay, so that was the news. We all kind of contributed to the news there, but I feel so excited that Conan's back to one day. It just personally, as someone who, like, got into the sport by watching the broadcast. It'll be even more competitive to get into now,

but that's how it should be. I feel attached to it, and I feel relieved. So thank you to Iron Man for making this probably hard decision that maybe was less immediately financially beneficial to them. It'll work out in the long run. I think so. Guarantee it.

Okay, let's do some rapid fire here. Usually the rapid fire is one of us asking each other questions, but this is going to be different. This is from Jules, and they're going to be swimming-related questions, but I want you two to answer them in rapid-fire style. Can't hear Jules and not think of super bad? Jules. Yeah, that's Emma Stone's character? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Okay, so this is from Jules. Got it. We got her name. Got it. Sorry, yes. I'm just trying to cover my bases here. Also, Jules is an adult onset swimmer, by the way. Fourth year in the sport.

What's Jules got to say? All right, Jules. Here's the first question from Jules. I swim at 5 a.m. Should I feel before my swim asks Jules. You should not swim at 5 a.m. period. Next. Yeah, you should feel before you swim. This is what I used to do when I swam at 5.30 a.m. 5 is crazy because you got to be there before 5.5, which is crazy. But I think my swim club started at 5.30. Anyway, I would wake up, put a piece of toast in the toaster, as I'm making my instant coffee, eat it in the car. Just have something. I mean, this one's I was doing. Nothing on the toast.

Oh, peanut butter on it. Okay. But eat it on brute. Like, you don't want it to take time out of your morning. And you don't want it to be the kind of thing you've got to digest. Right, right, right, of course. So even just like butter on toast, something so simple because ideally you're eating it like 10 minutes before you get in the water. But I do think that swimming fasted is not.

not setting yourself up for the best success in the swim workout. Yeah. Potentially the day. Yeah. That too. Yeah. I mean, I can tell if I haven't eaten enough before swimming and I feel a little bunky or especially if I do an afternoon swim, it's a terrible feeling.

So I think if you're not going to eat before, at least have a bottle with some carb mix on the deck. Just that's smart. Yeah. So you can sip on that throughout the swim. I wonder about like a smoothie that's just like a carb heavy smoothie. absorbs quickly. No, it's got it. I mean, if you make it the night before, it has to be brainless and take 23 seconds to make. Yeah, I mean, like if you could shake it up or yeah, it was the night before. Yeah, I mean, it just depends what you feel like, but the point is that you should eat.

I could never really figure this out. High carb mix. High carb mix, just straight to the vein. Yeah, it feels like that would be the move, except just 0% enjoyable. Yeah, right. And you don't, it just passes through, you're going to pee it out in three seconds. Not the carbs though Okay well that's that's the first one from Jules The next one from Jules is this I usually warm up for 700 meters Yeah there's four it's rapid fire

I usually warm up for 700 meters And then just make up a workout Should I come with something prepared instead I push myself but maybe should be finding workouts I didn't make up I would say Bring a workout on days It needs to be a structured session

And if it doesn't I mean like a workout Like a hard session the key session. Otherwise, yeah, you can make it up as you go. Yeah, the tough thing about making it up during the warm up is that even if you have an idea of what you're going to do in the car on the way there, like I did this last week. I had a set in my mind that I was going to do and it was really hard and I was got to the swim warm up and I'm like, oh, maybe I'll just do six instead of eight. You just give yourself out of it because no one's telling you to do it.

It doesn't feel as official if it's not written down. Nobody knows about it except you. So thankfully, I have a group that I swim with. So. I'll other bring the set or someone will bring a hard set and we just do it. And it's not as easy to manipulate the session if there's five people doing it. But if you're just alone in your own head and you don't want to work hard or you, you know, it's just too easy to not do it. Yeah. Yeah.

And who likes swimming hard? Nobody. So sometimes you just need a piece of paper there to be like, this is an official thing I'm doing. Yep. Yep. I would suggest that on you. Like Eric said, on the hard swim days, that's what you should do. Yeah. Okay.

You guys could never do that, by the way. Some people are really good at making up sets like me and Jules probably. But you and Eric? No, I don't do that. I've just gotten very good of now memorizing. I just don't make a bullshit complicated sets that are complicated for no reason. I just do like five by 300. He sounds real bitter.

Like, freaking just do the work. Five? Yes, I couldn't make up a set that would make everybody happy. No. Could I make up a set that would make everybody faster? Yes. Okay, I disagree. Damn.

Gotting. Next question. Guess he's coached by Paulo. Yeah. Okay. Guilty. Nice. Next one from Jules here.

Number three, I always use paddles and buoy for the first, third-ish of the swim. Should I have some days where I don't use any toys? What are y'all's thought on toys? Yes, definitely. You're breaking all the rules. You're not eating. You're making up your own swims and you're using toys for half the swim. One third.

One third. Excuse you. Jules. I think toys are a good tool for building strength. Paddles are good for building strength. Flippers have their purpose. But I think often people could use them as a crotch because your heart rate's usually lower if you're pulling.

It's a lot easier. So on sets where it's a hard swim for me, I never allow myself to put any kind of toys on and then I'll usually finish the workout with like four 200s pull paddles. Right. As more of a cool down. Yeah, this is excluding the warm up. Do whatever you want during the warm up.

Yes, exactly. do whatever you want in the warmup and then in the main set. Limit the toys. Her friend Andy usually takes this pole boy and chucks it across the pool deck so that he's not even tempted by it. You can't take alcohol out of the house, you know? It's like pouring water on the French fries. You're like, all right, I'm not going to eat these after this. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Very nice, very nice. Okay. And then last one here from Jules. Jules, thank you for all these questions, by the last one here from Jules. Last question. As a 70.3 athlete, should I be focusing on longer sets in the the pool. I usually don't swim more than 500 straight through and I mix in short efforts into my

workouts. Should I do workouts to focus on longer sets or just keep doing a mix of short and long efforts? This is interesting because all my training, I have very rarely, maybe only a few times before the race will swim more than 400. Yeah, same. Yeah. Yeah. I would say like definitely shorter length of intervals and you can shorten down the leaving time if you want. But the priority I feel should be on like how fast can you swim properly and not just like let your form fall apart and feel like it just came to pieces. This is interesting though because I saw him with Devin the other day and his coach

gave him a 1,000 meter at race pace and then two 500s at race pace. And in my mind I'm like, that is torture. But he's like, I need to get used to swimming over a thousand meters straight because that's what we do in the race. And I don't disagree with that philosophy. I think that sometimes it can come as a super shock. in a 70.3, if you haven't done that long of swims, it's your first race of the year, second race of the year,

it is very different than doing hundreds on the 130, where you get to reset every single time. Oh, yeah, for sure. I don't think it's a bad idea to do some longer stuff. Although, like Eric said, it is crazy how I did this thousand with him and the first hundred we went out in a 118 and it felt like floating, like not even trying. And then at the end of the thousand, you're like sprinting.

to go 1118. So your body really does slow down, break down in efficiency throughout longer intervals like that. So I would say, I don't know, I hate to tell you you should do this, but it's not a terrible idea. Okay, well, what about this?

So for example, in my training, when you get closer to the race, one of the swims in the week is an open water swim, and those will have longer intervals, like 800s, thousands, and even a 1,200. When you guys swim open water, do you swim these longer intervals? Yeah, if you have the privilege of having an access to open water, like we do in the summertime, that's totally different.

Because yes, then we will do a thousand plus meters at a time. But it's the pool where we rarely ever do a thousand. Right, Eric? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mostly because we don't want to hate it more than we already hate it. And I mean, I don't think we have particularly long, at least when we were with Paulo, we didn't have particularly long leaving times either. Like 10 seconds rest at the most.

Yeah, but honestly, Eric, even that's different than swimming straight. I'm serious. So different. Even mentally, just like, I get to take a break, you know, I get to stop for a second. That's the thing in my head. When I can break it up, I'm like, okay, I only have 100 left and then I get to touch, even if I'm pushing off in five seconds versus like, okay, I'm getting to the wall and I still have 900. Eric, you feel like your brain works a little bit differently, though?

Like, you wouldn't mind as much? I don't know. I just, I think maybe it has to do with what type of. athlete you are. I feel like I just have a little bit more of a diesel engine or something and I'm not one of these people who can just like go do intervals at 390 watts even though in triathons I race 315 watts. I'm just like I can hit 325 maybe and hit 315 like I train really, really close to how I actually race regardless of how long the interval is. And there are definitely people who I think can they've got a VO2 max crazy.

or something where they can do these super gnarly hundreds, but then they can't put it together for a 1500. And maybe that's the person that yeah, needs to do that. What is your actual race pace you've done into 70.3? And do that for a K. Yeah, that's the thing is when we did this thousand at 70.3 pace, we looked at like what we swam at Oceanside and it was not that fast.

So I'm like, this is easy to do in the pool. But then if we were doing hundreds at race pace, I'd be trying to go like 10 seconds faster than what I actually swim. So it's really confusing. I don't know if it's because like the distance and the swim in the race is like a little off or if you're really just swimming that much slower in the race. I don't know. I think we can't draw too many conclusions from like the time from a 70.3.

But I think you can draw some conclusions from like if you swim with somebody in a pool relative to how you swim to them with them in a race. And that's a nice thing about being in a squad environment. You can actually compare that kind of one to one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Having been in that environment for a long time, there were definitely people who were just like

workout heroes and could just bang out hundreds, like sub one minute yards over and over and over again. And then in open water swim, they'd be 10 seconds, you know, hundreds slower than that. And they build up some sort of complex that things just happen to them in the water. Yeah. And it's like, uh, maybe, yeah, maybe that's the person that needed to do some more 500s, take a log off the fire, build up like the muscular strength. Christian put his swim on Strava from the race. Is an Iron Man swim 4,000 meters? It's 3,800.

Okay, because it says he averaged 131 per 100 meters. and I'm sure in a pool he's going one-tenths per hundred. Yeah, yeah. And then he won the race, you know, so. Yeah, that's interesting. It's just really crazy to me how. So he wore a watch. He wore a watch in the water, yeah.

It's great. Apparently, yeah. Well, that was a horrible rapid fire, but a very interesting question. Jules, thank you so much. You were the start of the show, Jules. But let's move on to real questions. You can submit your questions to the podcast at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast, where you can also become a podcast supporter, which is the best way that you can support

this podcast and in the most podcasty sense of things. Last week, we sent out a message to see what people thought they could contribute as far as perks for podcast supporters. And I got many messages from people. We're still compiling them and figuring out what we want to be able to do. But thank you for everyone who sent me a message. There were many of them. We are going to pick another podcast winner podcast supporter winner this week and Stephen Carper you are the winner this week you are going to get the final

orca dry bag that we have or at least that I have here congratulations Steven thank you for being a podcast supporter we appreciate you and we love you did we ever get a message from last week's supporter

yes we did Eric it's on the note you got to mail that he wanted the medium shirt bib he emailed that for me very nice Nice, dude. She probably will mail it, actually. No, you've got to do the poster, too, downstairs.

You do that for me, too. Thanks. First question here is from thank you. Let's just say it's from Jules. When pros slash age groupers get a flat and on course support gives someone a new wheel, on course support, sorry, when on course support gives someone a new wheel,

how do you get your wheel back from them? Do they meet you in transition? Do they change it while you're on the run course? Thank you. So what they're talking about here for everyone who doesn't know is, and this happened actually to Christian Blumentfeld and his race where he got a flat. This happened also in Iron Man, Texas to Gustav. But if you get a flat, there is someone on a little motor scooter that will come by and swap wheels with you. And I've always had questions about how they handle different rotor sizes and that kind of stuff.

and I guess everyone now has thorough axles and I guess a 140 rotor size, but once that happens and they successfully change the wheel out, what happens to your old wheel? Have you now donated it to Iron Man? Or do you get it back later? Does it never happen to me. So I don't know.

But I'm sure that the pro mechanics take the wheel back to the pro transition and leave it either at your bike or in a mechanic area at the pro transition. You're for sure getting it back. Yeah, I would say there's even a chance to come and put it right back on your bike and you never even know what happened.

Because they want their wheel back. They want their wheel back. Yeah. Yeah, they got a lot of time between when you get off the bike and when you are done racing and go pick up your bike. Yeah, cool. I like that question.

I thought it was just kind of cool, something that we don't think about as age groupers very often, but I'm sure that's also the last thing Gustav was thinking about as he was getting a wheel swap. He's like, how am I going to get my K-Dex back? He's probably like throw that thing away.

Never want to see it again? Right, right, of course. But why do you think the Norwegians got flats in Oceanside and in Texas? That's just total coincidence? That is funny. Or do you think they were riding around? I don't want to speculate because I don't want to be insulting, but do you think their sealant was fresh? Do you think they had fresh tires?

Well, let's just assume that, you know, that it's an equipment failure issue. Yeah, there could be bad sealant. The tires could be not old. wheels could have a certain thing to the profile of the actual, that's not a bead, you know, like not a hook anymore if they're hookless, but that, you know, makes them more prone to pinch flatting, like just a sharper actual site. Can you pinch flat a tubeless wheel? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. It's like slices through the actual. Yeah, you slice the tire. But I heard of several people getting flats in Texas, so it must be some debris on the road as well, just being a motorway. Yeah. I'm going to guess it's not a, you know, it's just a coincidence, but. But are those boys traveling over here on their own?

Like, they're not coming over with, you know, someone to make sure that the tires are totally fresh and fresh ceiling. I don't think Kadex does the whole canyon full entourage thing, no. Yeah. You just assume that they've got nothing better to you than to make sure that's all super dialed. It just really sucks for them because it essentially. It really changes their race, of course. Really changes their race. And just, yeah, they're competitive and they want to win.

Let's freaking text them. At least Gustav was able to still roll up until the... He got lucky because the mechanic was right there. Or not lucky, but I guess Iron Man may have noticed what happened to Christian in the amount of time he waited and then made sure that maybe the pro mechanics were a little bit more available. Or there was more of them. It's tough. That is tough.

But that wheel swap was. so impressive. It was like Tudor France style. Yeah, he was good. I saw that. He was really good. And he even gave him a push after? Like, that was so pro. I don't know if he was allowed to do that, is he? You're allowed. It's... Yeah, I loved it, though. It was very Tudor-D-Rawracing. You're allowed to, like, slingshot off the car, aren't you? Yeah. The sticky bottle?

Yeah. Yeah. Great. Well, thank you for that question. Jules, I guess. Next one here is from Erica. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick, and Flynn. I'm a new mom with a five-month-old, and I'll be returning to work soon. Between work, being present for my son and connecting with my husband, plus the basic life stuff of cooking, nutritious meals trying to get adequate sleep, showering. There's just not enough time and energy to be the triathlet I've been for the last 15 years. I have a long-term goal set for 2034 when my son will

be 10. That is long-term. I hope the earth will still be around by then. I'm wondering what's the best way to spend my precious time now when it comes to the time-consuming sport of swim and bike when my goal is so far out. I'm hoping to swim two times per week for 45 minutes. Should I just swim aerobic, focus on form, speed? What about just two weekly sessions on the bike? Try to get in a long ride, work on torque, cadence, just have fun. I still love swim bike run.

Just want to keep them in my life in maintenance mode until there's space to ramp back up and tackle my next goal. Thanks so much for your insight and good luck this season, Erica. I think this is really interesting because This could go in a couple different directions. I'm curious where your guy's mind goes to after hearing that. Do you want to go, Eric? And I can tell you where my mind went straight, too.

I'll just say just make it up as you go and have fun until you can train seriously. I was going to say, nothing you do right now is going to impact how you race in 2034. So just do what sounds good. And I think a lot of people, you included Nick, enjoy the training much more than the racing. and I think that if you didn't have any races on the schedule, you would still train the same and want to push yourself in certain ways. And just because you're not racing for 10 more years, it doesn't mean that you can't do any hard sessions.

Because sometimes you get just as much satisfaction out of finishing a hard effort or a hard workout as you do going to the race itself. So structure some of that in and the feeling in the rush you get from doing a tempo run or like some intervals on the bike or hill repeats or sprints in the pool. actually can be quite fulfilling. And we all got a little taste of this during COVID when there were no races to do. But Eric and I still trained our brains out because we really liked it with no pressure at all. And as a result, got fitter than we've ever been before.

So that doesn't have to be a race to train well and to enjoy the training and to still get some benefit out of the feeling. 100%. So then how does that then work with structured training? like we're saying don't stress the structure. But like for example, let's say you just, you want to do one hard run a week and one hard bike a week and one hard swim a week. Just like kind of have an idea of what day that might work best for you.

And try to pull that off. And if it doesn't, if you're not feeling it on that day, I just, I wouldn't stress it. Like I, I'm coming back from this little sickness thing that I got and I haven't done a hard run workout in a couple of weeks now. I've done very little running, but last night I went out and I was running and I felt pretty good. And so I just kind of like did an impromptu build run. And it was awesome. And I just, that just kind of like came from inside and felt right and I did it.

And there you go. So I think that kind of thing is fine as the spirit moves you. And you can have a little bit of a loose plan for Tuesday, I think is like a good day that there's a good chance that I'll be feeling good because I, whatever, I had a babysitter on Monday night. So. Yeah. It's not a bad idea to have some idea of how your week will look just because most humans like to have structure in planning in their life. But like Eric said, if you're out on an easy run and you feel really good, do 10 minutes hard or something like that. I think something that is like coming up when you guys are talking about this stuff is the idea of fun versus fulfillment and like type 2 fun.

Because for me, is it fun to do hard swims? No, it's not fun like Paul was saying. Like, is that fun for anyone? No, not really. But there is a satisfaction I have at the end of the week when I think, like, I did these things that were hard for me to do. They were hard for my brain to get through. But I did them. I can do hard things. And if I were in Erica's position, I don't think I could have.

I think Eric's, Eric Lagerstrom, I think Eric's brain is good at this thing where it's like, I'm going to do this build run. But if I don't have something on the schedule, I don't know how much me, Nick, is going to be able to put that into actual. effect. I think I need something on my schedule, even if I'm not racing. I love, I just like you said, I love the, you know, the tempo run every once in a while or the interval session every once in a while, but I think I need something on the schedule that's telling me to do that similar to how you don't want to come up with a swim when you're on the way to the pool or while you're warming up. I need something that's there that's telling me to do it. And at the end of the week or the month, I feel happier and a more fulfilled version of myself because I've done those things.

So you just got to figure out what kind of a person you are. Are you more like Eric or you more like Nick? Yeah. But both things are fine. But good luck. That's a long ways away, Erica. But also maybe she'll get excited and do a race. I mean, it doesn't have to, you don't have to take racing that seriously.

You could sign up for a race in 26 or eight. I think this will what you need to do will like reveal itself as you go. You know, you might go through a period where you do more like what I just said. You might go through and then it'll spur you into, I need to be serious and be like Nick. And then it'll spur you into, oh my gosh, randomly, when I'm on vacation in Tahiti, there's a race. 70.3. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, I'll just freaking do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're probably a pace better than you ever have. Yeah, right. Great. Well, good luck, Erica. Next question is from Matt. Hey, tripod.

Ooh, love it. Got a question for the guys regarding underwear inspired by the question last week about sports bras. This is going to be all you, dude. Yeah, Eric wears underwear twice a year for like a wedding and a funeral. Yeah. Or when he's about to get me, he's had a experience. Okay, Paul, as much as you try,

that's not ever making it on to the pot. Okay, moving on here. My 70.3 training plan is starting to ramp up with a lot more running than I have ever done in the past. I'm finding that I'm starting to get some pretty bad chafing on my inner thigh and groin area. Do you have recommendations on underwear for running?

Material briefs, boxers, et cetera. My tidy witties just aren't cutting it anymore. All right. So first off, no tidy whitties with running. No tighties, no whitties. No, no, no anythings. I have a great solution for this and I think Eric is going to completely agree, which is running tights, shorts. What do you call? Just running shorts. Any sort of short that was designed for running. With no underwear. No underwear involved. Think of the laundry you'll save. Oh my God. Your life is about to be changed. You should not be wearing tidy white is running 100. and certainly not cotton, tidy white used to running.

That's a nightmare, dude. Wow, savage. That's a nightmare. For persevering to this point, but wow. But I have been loving running in half tights. This is like the hack of all hacks. They're super comfortable. Mine have a pocket in the side for my phone,

which I usually have to wear a nerdy running belt, and now the pocket in the side satisfies that, and they're just comfortable, and they make me feel like a legit runner, even though I'm not. Yeah, they look good. Eric, so Eric, even when you run in like your role, work shorts. Yeah.

Are those, do those have a liner? Yeah. Very light liner. Yeah. I don't even notice it's there. Ideally, I want to feel like I'm running naked.

Right. I'll just be, you know what? I just like the more things that are touching my body, if there's like two layers of fabric, any sort of restriction whatsoever, bothers me. So I need my running shorts

to either just be very light and flowing, split shorts or just like a nice material that doesn't restrict at all, or I'll do half tights. the main difference there as Eric is a professional athlete does that he may not have as much thigh rubbing as some of the normal people out here like us so that might work for Eric but if you

if nothing else do you have ball rubbing very nice so you get when you get half tight don't get ones to have a seam right across the bottom there yeah I was going to in my professional opinion on this right of course is that you have to get form fitting tight stuff.

Like if there's chafing, it's because it's maybe not fitting you properly. Yeah. Yeah. So make it like extra tight. Yeah. Have either of you ever had problems with chafing with running? Well, actually these new really sick on shorts that I've been wearing,

those pink and those blue ones, are loose and I love the feeling of them. But because they're loose, they do chafe a little bit on the liner, which is not a, they're not actually a running short. They're meant for like training or whatever. That's what their label does. Yeah, training, right? Like weightlifting or whatever. Yeah.

Okay, fair. Going to the gym. Going to the gym. Going to the gym. Walking around. Looking cow. What the muggles do. Okay.

Next question. You guys. Next question here. I mean, they do look cute. They look so cute. They look so cute. Why? They look so cat.

Okay. Next question here. This is like another. clothing-based question. I have a Castelli PR trisuit. Absolutely love it. Next month I have a 100-kilometer gravel race. Am I crazy to be considering wearing it for the race?

Will my butt take a serious pounding? Will those serious cyclists look down on me? I think your butt will take a pounding for sure. You will be judged by the cyclists. And also, you don't want to ruin it. To me, gravel racing is... Dirty, dusty potential for falling and ripping it. I mean, you know, let's just say money is no object,

but you really like the feel of that, you could get yourself a skin suit. Like, they're definitely... El cyclists that race in a skin suit. Castelli just came out with a jersey that's for racing, and it has the ribbed armbands. For cycling. For cycling, yeah.

So you could, if you're a fan of the PR Speed Suit, you'll probably be a fan of other Castelli items, and they do have race-specific kits for cycling. Or the better shammie. Who cares if people laugh at you? Forget about that. I think the biggest thing is the shammie. And the triathlon ones are designed to swim in.

So the shami is so, so minimal, which is completely fine for even an Iron Man race. I don't know, just the position you're on in a TT bike, but with gravel and washboard and who knows what. And you don't have to worry about it being wet, so why not be supremely comfortable? Yeah. It's just funny because he's saying,

saying he's comfortable, but God, I could not imagine it being... You'd be more comfortable as our contention. For sure, for sure. I don't actually think it would look that dumb. You look fast. I bet a lot of people wouldn't notice.

Just because there are people wearing skin suits. Yeah, but it's more just the comfort and preserving your very expensive speed suit. Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Next question here is from Alex. Hey, TTL Squad. Running question for Paula.

What would your ideal mix of running surfaces be across pavement, gravel, grass trail, and treadmill. I'm spoiled for choice, not sure how I should think about this as a middle and long-distance triathlete. Also, we need more Flynn appearances. Really? I feel like Paul's Instagram is more than 50% Flynn. More than 80%? My last three Instagram posts have all been Flynn-related.

There you go. Okay, so anyway, so veto the Flynn, but what about the running surfaces? ideally I'm doing like 80% trail. But when I talk trail, like not the kind of really technical trail that Eric does, but more like a path that's soft. Fire roads. Fire roads.

Soft surface running. And not a lot of elevation change, right? No, I do a lot of hills here in Ben. If you look at my elevation on Strava, my weekly runs, I'd say it's quite a lot hillyer than most pro triathletes. I would like somewhere halfway between like what? trail runners do and normal

trathletes too. Although I've been hiding some of my Stravas, so don't look at my totals for the week and judge me. Wow. So I'm not accurate. She wants it both ways. Don't judge her, but also you don't get to know what they are.

You're right. I'm the worst. I am the worst. I like to do harder off the bike runs on pavement because it just really replicates the feeling of racing. And if you never run on pavement and only run on soft surfaces, It can feel very foreign to go to a race and run on concrete or pavement. And then treadmill, I do, I don't know, maybe 10%.

Like some weeks I won't even run on it at all. Sometimes I'll do a run off the bike on it. The winter, I'll use it a lot more. So it's kind of by feel, but I would say the majority of the running is just soft surfaces. And if you have really manicured grass, like in Australia, they have grass tracks and stuff like that. That's a really good solution. But I just think it's good for protecting your joints, being more. having a bit more longevity and injury prevention to run on soft versus concrete every single day.

But, I mean, Nick, you run on concrete every time you run. I mean, I had to trail today, but I do a lot of concrete running, but nowhere near as much as you guys run. So I'm not sure what that would be like if I did. Yeah. Paula, that was what you do, but is that also, does that also happen to be what you find to be ideal for yourself? Yeah. Okay, cool. I only do things that are ideal, Nick.

Well, I mean, I'm thinking if you lived in a place where it didn't snow or it wasn't icy, would that change, you know? It's a lot about access too. Like, we can be on soft surface and 800 meters from our door. If I didn't live that close to soft surface, I would do a lot more pavement running or a lot more treadmill running. So it, but this works for me. And I think if you have access to it, you should do it. Yeah. Yeah, cool.

It's from Baz from the UK. Hey, team, loving the TTL content and positivity. You all do so much to increase the exposure of triathlon and multi-sports. Thanks, Baz. Question. You have such a cool life, whilst I know it's not all perfect and serious hard work, what made you move to bend? A lot of triathletes live in places like Arizona, et cetera.

Be interested to know what made you make the move there and how it has impacted, plus or minus, your careers. Keep up the cool work, Baz from the UK. Interesting. That implies that this person assumes that it's not ideal here. Not necessarily. I mean, it does. It's not idea. It snows half the year. Yeah. Well, I'd say like the biggest initial thing was that we had a lot of friends here. Chris and Lindsay Corbyn were here when Lindsay was still a professional triathlete. Well, I would back up one more step. Sorry to you.

Let's back up even further. Is that he's from Oregon. Eric's from Portland. Yeah. We wouldn't have even been considered or considering Oregon necessarily if you weren't from here and living a couple hours from Bend. Yeah. So that was the first thing. But yeah, then we had friends here. Yeah.

Keep going. Heather and Wadi were here. Jesse Thomas lived here. There was actually, when we first moved here, like a pretty decent squad of pro triathletes in the area. And some people that you haven't heard of, but that were a great swim group for us and that I did bike rides with. And then it's kind of bold. Esk in terms of the weather. Yes, it snows, but it's like over 300 days of sunshine, incredible trail access. So like Paula said, you know, a few minutes ago, we can be on soft

surface within 800 meters leaving the door. And I think that has had a huge impact on, especially Paula's ability to stay injury free over the last few years. Paula grew up going to the mountains in Canmore. We have beautiful mountains here. I feel like spiritually, whatever, living in a mountain town just feels very right. The outdoor access is insane. The TT biking is not world class. It's fine. I mean, those are like the reasons that I can rattle off.

But yeah, I love Oregon. Where is the TT biking world class? I think TT biking might be, I just biking is better in Boulder to a degree that they've just got some big boxes. And then you can go up a left-hand canyon into the... the canyons. Like, I guess our TT biking here is decent, but it's just the bumps, right? Like, you have the roads. There's an expansion cracks.

Yeah. I think it's okay if you're doing like five-hour rides frequently. If you're doing three-hour rides, then it starts to get a little bit monotonous. But if you like gravel cycling or mountain biking at all, and you mix that in twice a week, I feel like it's very diverse. Do you think it's, this is maybe silly, but I've, people were for a while, putting TT bar clip-ons onto their gravel setups for races. Yeah.

Would it be crazy for a triathlet to try to mimic their position on a TT bike on a gravel bike and do a bunch of gravel riding there and still get a lot of the same physiological benefit? No, I mean. Sorry to shut it down like in a meanwhile. We don't have that kind of gravel. Yeah, the gravel is so gnarly like the gravel we did today. I was nearly crying. It was so scary.

I see. So it's because it's not wide, flat. It's not dirt roads. It's not like champagne gravel, as they say. Right. It's more like... Like a bumpy fire road that logging trucks go on. Yes.

And some of it's sandy and some of it's just like washboard and some of it's like large scale chunky rocks. So it's interesting. You're on your toes the whole time, but you're definitely not going to be comfortable in arrow bars. Yeah. It's really not. Every time I'm doing it and I do it like two or three times a week, I read the gravel. bike, the diverge. Like, why am I doing this? This is so unenjoyable. Bouncing all over the place, feeling like I'm going to fall off my bike.

I love it. Oh my gosh. It's probably actually good for bike handling skills, but of course. It's really challenging here. And there's no road in all of bend that's just perfect dirt gravel smooth. Can you think of one? Maybe size more. Size more. BS logging used to be really good. What about the road to Tomolo Falls? It's tricky to get there. That's a little bit chunky rock. I mean, yeah, it's fine, but it's also short. This is, like, so subjective. Yeah.

Like, yeah, I would say 90% of Troutes you can feel exactly the way that Paul is. A whole bunch of gravel cyclists are going to think it's great. It just is, like, what you're used to and how bumpy is super bumpy to you. Yeah. Yeah. But also, don't move to Ben. Don't move to Ben.

I mean, Ben is great, but we went to Portland last weekend, and we used to live in Troutdale just outside of Portland. And the riding there, the road riding is, 10 times better than here, I would say, for the road. And then we went into downtown Portland and tried to find somewhere to eat, just picked somewhere random on a map. And it was one of the best restaurants I've ever been to. Not expensive, best food I've ever had.

And that is not the case in a small town like this. There's, if you're the kind of person that likes going out to eat and likes diverse, any diversity in all. I feel like diverse, anything, actually. Just pick anything. Literally anything. It's not. the best for that. The Redmond Airport is okay, but it's not like a direct flight to literally anywhere in the world like Portland would be. So there are downsides of living in a place like this that's a little bit isolated from a big city, but the upside is the outdoor access. And while we are professional triathletes, it's perfect for us, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily the best place for everybody.

Yep. That's all I have to say about it. It is beautiful there though. It is very beautiful. It is beautiful. Well, okay, those were all our questions. mostly questions from Jules. Thank you again, Jules for writing it. Legend. Legend Jules. This podcast is dedicated to you, Jules. But yeah, the big news is that Kona is going to be one day in Hawaii. Well, obviously, it's Kona.

The reason I like it as selfishly is because I do want to do Kona. I don't feel ready to do it in 2025, and I didn't want to have to wait until 2027. Right. Right. That's great. Yep. So just to know it's there,

year, not have this uncertainty, or I have it to wait two years to do it is really nice because it is the pinnacle in a lot of ways. Yeah. Well, next week will be race week, St. George, where we still have not figured out exactly how we're going to record this podcast. We're going to try our best to make it work, though. Maybe you'll have to come out a day late, potentially. We'll figure that out, but we will do something. Yeah. We got you, everybody. Thanks for listening, everyone. Later. Bye.