That Triathlon Life Podcast - Can you overswim a triathlon? Fueling on a mountain bike, and more!

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

This week we answer your triathlon questions. We discuss getting to bed on time with a job and training, cycling shorts vs cycling bibs, whether or not swim skins keep you warm, xterra fueling, cleaning a waxed chain, becoming a part of triathlon race organizing, bike tech maintenance videos in TTLs future, if it's possible to swim too hard in a race, corduroy TTL hats, the best bike helmet color, and more! To become a podcast supporter, and to submit your own questions for the podcast, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcastHere's a link to The Advenire Hotel in St. George that we mentioned in the podcast

Hello, everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Erica Langenstrom. I'm Nick Goldston. Welcome to our triathlon podcast where we talk about what's going on in our lives, in the triathlon world. And most of all, we take questions from the listeners. Every week it blows our mind how good the questions are that you guys send in. So thank you so much to everyone who does that. And yeah, we're excited to kind of share some of our knowledge with you. Talk about our upcoming races. Talk about our upcoming TTR launches. talk about our development team, talk about, I don't know, all the stuff that's gone on this week in our lives. And there's a lot of cool things that we've done actually in the last five days.

So let's get to it. Why would people care? People care about what we have to say maybe a little bit because Paul and I are both professional trathletes. We have been for like a collective 25 years now or something like that. Nick is a professional musician. Amateur trathlet brings a little bit of a every man's aspect to the podcast. So that's who we are. Yeah, I forgot that part.

I haven't done the intro for your hot. second. All right. I messed it up last week. It's a lot. You were real quick to criticize Eric last week. That's why we wanted to put you first. Yeah, well, I liked my energy, but I just forgot a very important part. A plus plus on the energy. You guys, so I just made a Google Docs of, like, we have like 30 wetsuits in our attic. Most of them brand new, never used or used maybe one time. And we really need to sell them. So I thought, what's the best way to get these out to you guys for sale. So I made a Google Docs with the model, the brand,

the size, the price, the condition it's in. And I just, like, put that out into the world. And if you want one of these wetsuits, you just put your email address and I'll send you Eric's Venmo and you send me your address and I'll ship it out. So hopefully by the time the pod comes out, it'll be... They're going to be gone. I don't know if they're going to be gone. They're screaming

deals. I guess the only way they might not be gone is because Paul and I, like, we have one size. It's not like we have a size run. Yeah. We have a bunch of medium, men's in a bunch of small ways. Right. Right. Right. We have several that are just like we wore them for the testing and we loved them, but we're wearing Orca now because those are our favorites. But a lot of these are really, really great wetsuits that we literally took the tags off, swam in for 500 meters and they're just

perfectly new. So. Ready to be in the world. But I actually love this format of doing a TTL garage sale. And we have a lot of like helmets, shoes that are unworn. Like I have Nike race shoes. I don't know. I just think this could be a cool way of. putting our stuff up for sale. Random components. Yeah, bike components. So even if all the wetsuits are gone by Thursday,

I'm going to keep updating this with stuff that we have to sell. As triathletes, we accumulate a lot of stuff, and it feels like a little bit wasteful. So hopefully we can pass them on. Yeah, the trickiest part is just like finding an efficient way to sell it and give it a new life. Well, why not make a page on the website that's just TTR garage sale and you go there and there's something available.

Because Paula is taking the reins and Danny and I are working on other website things. Right, right, right. This is all Paula's initiative. So she gets to buy whatever piece of furniture, new rug that she wants with all the money. Okay, so speaking of shipping things to people in other places, we have a bit of drama to report, which is it's a little funny, but it seems like it will be resolved. Will it be resolved? It seems like it will be resolved, right? Yeah.

Can I just preempt this story by saying, don't let this scare you? This is a wild, outrageous, unusual situation we have encountered. This is not normal. Yeah, our shipping people in Utah are amazing. Our fulfillment center, we've never had an improper address. We've never had the miss anything. So they're really, really diligent. But these shred till bed posters, they're probably the only thing that we've ever done where they're really only is 100. And we can't just go, like, print new ones really quickly. But 10 posters. for some reason, kind of got lost in transit. And they just said on the tracker, package acceptance pending in Utah for the last three weeks. So obviously all these 10 people have been emailing me, Instagram messaging me. I'm, I feel terrible. And I'm answering each email as they come in with like, we're hoping it just missed a scan and it's on its way. This has never happened before.

We physically went to the post office in Utah to make sure they weren't there. So we've just been kind of like waiting it out for the last. And another thing, all these 10 orders are international orders. They're all going to Canada. I got an update today from our shipper from Utah that said that the packages are in motion, but they're in Saudi Arabia. Oh, God. That's the wrong direction. It's not funny, but it's insane.

Oh, my gosh. So the good news is they're not lost. Do you think my TTL kid is there, the long lost one? It might be in Saudi Arabia as well. Yeah, it could be there too. You have to go find out. Yeah. So we're hoping that the Saudi Arabian purpose.

post office will realize that they're supposed to be in Canada and forward them on to their proper home. But if not, we will print 10 more and make sure these people get their poster because everyone was so excited to get these. And then all of a sudden, it's like delay, delay, oh, they're on the other side of the world. So who knows how these things happen with USPS. But once they leave our warehouse, it's kind of out of our control. And obviously we're responsible for it because people paid money for these. But it's, I know as much as you guys know for all these 10 people.

Yeah. Yeah, that's funny. That's the first bit of unfortunate news. And then we have one more bit of unfortunate news, but then I promise it's all positive. It's all downhill from here. Paula, you tried to combine your, like, gymnastics and dancing background with your trail running expertise

by trying to do a front handspring on trail. Dude, you're overhyping it. So hard. I haven't stopped talking since the start of the start of this podcast, but this is a cool story. I want to hear it since we've talked a lot about the safety of trail running and stuff. Yeah, that's true. This does actually come back to question that we had last week or the other week about should I'd be doing trail running as a triathlete? Is it good for me? Is it dangerous? It was last week. It was last week, yeah. So I trail run probably four or

five times a week, I'd say. We're on either gravel, dual track or single track. And we were running on mountain bike trails it fills. But I did trip and face plant over a route going downhill. Nice. And Eric was with me. He was right behind me. And I kind of had the reaction like a five-year-old child would have where you just start crying instantly before you even assess the damage.

Before you even hit the ground, just like, it's coming. Yeah. So after like walking it out. Oh yeah. And I did manage to pause my Wahoo midair. Of course. Of course. Well, let's get our priorities straight, right?

No. Beleep. So I was not recording my paused time. But I got up, kind of walked it off, jogged back to the car. My thumb, like lower thumb was extremely sore. Couldn't really move it. It got bruised. It got swollen.

And then the next day when I tried to swim, it was like couldn't even do a single stroke. It felt like my hand was broken. So my coach and the doctor who we swim with said, you need to go get an x-ray. So I was like, okay, I guess I should just to rule out a break or a fracture or something. And got into the urgent care, got an x-ray, looked normal, no bone break. So it was like a ligament thing or some kind of inflammation. And over the weekend, it did get better. It really hurts to put my hand on my handlebars.

So I'm just being cautious with that. I did about 4K of swimming this morning. So that's improving quickly as well. but yeah, kind of the first injury I've had in a while. And the first, like, traumatic, avoidable injury, you know, not overuse. Do you feel like you made any mistake or was it kind of a freak accident? Like, were you distracted? Were you tired and dragging your feet a bit?

Or was there anything like that? Yeah, I guess that would be something that people could take from this experience. I was tired. It was our easy Thursday after two big days of training. And Eric was running directly behind me and I felt a little pressured to run faster than I wanted to or then my technical skills allow me to on the downhill.

Although he doesn't make, he didn't do that intentionally. It's just a feeling I get when he's like right behind me. So I was probably going a little too quick for my alertness levels and you know the shadows that get cast by the sun of trees

look like roots and it's hard to distinguish. So yeah, I just like caught my foot on a route. But I guess just slow down if you're feeling super tired, trail running, or just slow down in general to go a comfortable

pace where you're not really at risk of falling. I was thinking about this because I made this connection to my brain between what happened with you and then didn't Magnus and Dittlev recently crash on a speed bump and training and broke his wrist. He broke his wrist, yeah. And I just assume, like,

there's a lot of this stuff that happens because you are wrecked and you're so tired and you go out and like your threshold for dealing with any sort of anything besides just sitting on the trainer and spinning and like almost falling asleep is decreased. Like I remember an athlete training with Paula back in the day, ran into a car. Just on an easy evening ride,

like kind of teaboned a car, just, you know, and didn't really have any sort of idea of why it happened. Just like super tired. So that's something to be aware of if you're heading out to do something in the evening time, like assessing what your fatigue level is and what the technical level you're taking on is. So Eric, as any good partner would do, Paula thinks her thumb is broken and you went camping. Oh, well, you, no, I delayed my camping trip until we found out that her thumb was in fact not broken. So you're still number one best boyfriend? I mean, fiancé, thank you.

I'm here to stay. Yeah, I gave it an extra little bit of time, but then I headed off with Chris Corbyn actually did one of these things, which is, this is how it, what it takes for me to go camping. Somebody's like, I'm going camping. Here's where I'll be. It's happening. rather than, oh, what time do you want to leave? Where should we go? You know, then it just doesn't happen.

Love it. And I want to be that person in the future. But this time it was Chris Corbyn. He was going fly fishing, Steens Mountain, way out in eastern Oregon. So if you're not familiar with Oregon geography, Portland's in the upper northwest corner, we're in Bend in the middle, central Oregon. And then we went to like eastern Oregon, a little bit south-eastern Oregon, to this really cool mountain called Steens Mountain.

That's like this long slug sort of really long, like 45-mile long, long. mountain. And it was actually really cool because normally I would, I'm one week out from St. Anthony's, I would certainly not be able to do this, but I told myself when we were in Ventura, I'm going to try to go camping and go see new things as often as possible. Moving forward, just because of how inspired I was in Ventura by seeing new things, trying new bike rides, just new stimulus. And I actually had an interesting schedule this weekend that didn't have a swim on it, that allowed for a bike ride both days on gravel, went out there, got the work done,

had a camp, had great chats with Chris Corbyn, and I came back feeling pretty energized and psyched up. So wait a second, you're flying to Florida, to race St. Anthony's this weekend, and then we're all going to be in St. George, the weekend after that? Yeah, yeah. And I've been going 11 out of 10 effort on all things TTR,

kind of off the back of that community survey that we did. I took all the top things. on there and have been working really hard with Danny, who works on our website, and a couple other other people who have yet to introduce to the world that are helping me out with some stuff, and we're putting these, like, top things that you guys said that you cared about into action. But this weekend, I just felt like I need to get off the grid, unplug a little bit, and reset, because yeah, we're going to go to St. Anthony's, and I'll fly straight from there to St. George to meet Paula. It's a big couple of weekends. Are you going to race St. George?

I have not decided. I'm racing St. Anthony's. Here we go again. Eric is decided on a 70.3. Well, Eric at this point compared to Oceanside was like, I'm not doing it. So this is one step closer to him potentially racing. Yeah, he's signed up. I'm excited to race St. George, and I do have a fun little thing to talk about.

We are very graciously being given a hotel room by the Adveneer autograph collection hotel, which is literally right beside the finish line in St. George. We've actually stayed there before, Nick, Eric, and I. Is this also where the shuttle picks you up? Yeah, it's where the shuttle picks you up. It's like right where the action is. In the past, we've stayed way out in Washington for this race. So you're in like, you know, the Airbnb zone where all of the empty houses are that get rented out.

But we're really excited this year to be down there right in the action. And I think it'll be kind of a different race experience for us being so close to town. So thank you to them for hosting us. And if you guys want to book, they still have rooms open. And if you see us there and you're staying at the same hotel, we are going to bring some TTL gifts for people if they're staying there. Unfortunately, we don't have a discount code for the hotel, but it's a beautiful hotel. And they have a really good restaurant attached. Yeah.

We've been wanting to go back since I got my seventh place at St. George, 70.3 worlds, like the day after. they let us have a room for one night and it was just such a cool experience. Yeah. And even if you don't stay there, the restaurant called Wood Ash Rye is super good, really good drinks. That's a fancy one.

Yeah. It's fancy, but it's like friendly fancy, you know? I don't need to like, I don't need to show up in a suit. No, no, you could wear your TTR. Just,

yeah, wear your TTR race kit. This is the kind of beta that I feel like the people need. Like how fancy it's, I want good food, but I also want to be able to roll in and kind of what I was wearing.

Outfit beta. Yeah. I think a lot of people that go to races, they kind of do it as like a vacation. So it's fun sometimes to stay at hotels like this where you feel like you're treating yourself a little bit. And it's personally, I'm much more relaxed heading into a race. If I'm in a nice place, I'm a bit of a snob with hotels and accommodation. So I'm much more relaxed and chill and happy if I'm in like a super comfortable place. So we're excited to stay there.

Okay. Well, before we get into questions, let's do a little this or that. This or That Now I know we did this or that last week But this one is different I think this one's really fun And it's more of the traditional Kind of style of our this or that

So here's five this or that's guys You have to pick These are well thought out and difficult First one would you rather Swim one hour with Flynn strapped to you As he is when running Or bike one hour With him in a backpack

Like Heather does with her dog Flynn will not get hurt or drown during this He is there purely for your inconvenience I do the swimming if he could wear his life jacket Yeah There's no backpack that he's fitting in He's a big boy people

How much does he weigh? 82 pounds or something I've actually thought about this And talked to Alexi Vermeulen Just briefly about this If we were if Flynn and I were to race Alexi and Sir Willie the weiner dog Yeah

Like I would have to put Flynn in a burly trailer And we would lose hemorrhage time Trail him along I think we might gain time on the swim obviously. And then we would hemorrhage time on the bike, but then we might bring it back on the run if Sir Willie the weiner has to either run on the ground or he has to stay in the back

for Alexi runs. It's funny because dogs aren't very good swimmers. I don't think that Flynn's a fat. Flynn is not a fast swimmer. He's got to be faster than Willie. I mean, that dude's got like three inch long legs. And Alexi. He probably swims the same speed as Alexi. That's true. Actually, we have no idea. We don't know Lexi's swim speed. Sorry, Lexi. Lexi, write in with your best 1500 time.

Okay, next one. Post a day in the life type vlog every day for one whole month or not post a video for three months. Number two. For sure. Dude, I got to say number two. Every day in life, that's brutal. I think you're underestimating how much I enjoy making videos. I would happily take three months to make the best thing possible.

and not have this like deadline, deadline, deadline. Right. Okay. Next one. For one season, do every single run on the track, wearing whatever you like, or do every run on trail, but you can't wear socks.

Trail, 100%. Trail with bare feet? I think I'd get over the bare feet thing pretty quick. I mean, it's not bare feet. You're just no socks in your shoes. Yeah, I might choose that because you could use other tactics like putting mold skin or second skin.

Yeah. It would be tricky. here because of how dusty the trails are. That would be real tricky. Next one. For one season, every time you flip turn, you miss the wall, so you have nothing to push off of. You probably have not done it in a long time, but it feels awful.

It can confirm. It does feel awful. It does happen to me every once in a while since I'm still on my flip turn journey. Oh, I do it all the time because they move the bulkhead in our pool between 25 yards and 25 meters. Oh, really? Okay, so yeah, it feels terrible. They have to move the bulkhead sometimes so that the opposite end is 25 yards for high school swim meets. So that makes the other end of the pool like, 27 and a half meters and then like the crosshairs

that you use to tell when to flip are in the wrong place and it's... I was under the impression that bulkhead splits both halves into 25. No. Perfectly. Interesting.

Well, it does 25 meters, 25 meters most of the time. But every now and then they need it yards. I'm sorry. I see. That is crazy. Okay.

Yeah. Okay, got it. Would you rather do that or swim in a busy public pool every session? I would take the open flip turns God that's That is terrible

Well you would just You would just flip And you wouldn't like Push off expecting the wall to be there You would just learn to Flip and not push off And start swimming again I was assuming every time

You were like It surprises you Yeah It's a surprise every time Psychological warfare I guess if I just can't push off the wall I could probably deal with that Yeah like if I have a stress fracture

In my foot or something Which I do occasionally You just don't push off the wall and you flip before the tea and you just start swimming again, it's no big deal. Yeah, right. Oof, okay.

And then last one here, awful coffee followed by great ride or awful ride followed by great coffee. Awful coffee. Great ride. I would take the bad coffee, good ride. We're not that level of prima donna with our coffees.

We appreciate good coffee, but can also do any type of coffee if needed. Okay, I have a follow-up one. Would you rather have great vibes at a coffee shop, but mediocre coffee or mediocre vibes at the coffee shop, but great coffee. Probably the great coffee. I don't think I've ever been to a coffee shop that has good vibes, but mediocre coffee.

They come hand in hand. The one's in St. George. Oh. How many say that we've walked into a couple. It might just be a Utah thing because of, I don't know what, you know, no alcohol and coffee is like not super kosher. That's true. That feel love coffee or whatever. Yeah, we've walked into a couple coffee shops in Utah specifically and been like, whoa, we found the spot, sweet.

And then, like, there's a disconnect between how it looks and what, you know, makes a good coffee. Yeah. Oh, here's Flynn. He's trying to be a part of the podcast. Yeah, he's right into the mic yawning. Oh, yeah. He needs some attention, but he's going to wait for another one. He does not need any attention.

45 minutes. You want to know how much attention he's had today, an absurd amount. Okay. Just like every day. Yeah. We're happy to give him more, but need is not a word that this dog knows. Right. You guys are getting a little sound of what we listen to every day, a little fun sound track.

Lonnie's in the back of the car when you're pulling up to the pool. It's just full-on squeaky toy. Yeah. He's excited. Okay. Well, that was fun. Also, last thing there. Love what you do for our sport.

It generally adds so much to my week. Good luck in sport. You too. Okay. So we're going to move on to our regularly scheduled questions here. and we get these questions from our listeners, and you can submit your questions at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast, where you can also become a podcast supporter.

And last week, Paula explained a little bit about how grateful we are for our amazing supporters. And she even, I'm going to let you finish, Polly, but you incentivized some supporters as well. Yeah, I mean, we got so many new supporters last week. it was outrageous. I couldn't believe it. And I don't know if it's, I don't think it's because of my on incentive.

I gave a little on discount to the first 10 new subscribers, but those literally went in like 10 minutes from when the podcast came out. So kind of unfair to people that had been sleeping at that time. But I think it was more me explaining the importance of the supporters because we don't do ad reads. And I don't think people truly understand how viable. it is to do ad reads and every other podcast does them. We all sit through and listen to them on podcasts that we listen to. So the fact that we don't do them is a bit of a financial sacrifice, but we make up for that with your guys of support. So I think kind of like explaining

that a little more instead of glossing over like you can go support the podcast, we explained what it really means. And hopefully that's the reason that people decided to, if they were on the fence, like, you know, to do it. So I got several messages from people saying that they were on the fence and then they finally became supporters last week. That's awesome. So really appreciate that. We all got a raise this week. We all got a raise this week.

Another little thing we like to do is we pick a random podcast supporter and we send them a little TTL kind of piece of gear. Right now we're sending bottles and socks or just bottles? Yeah. Bottles and socks. Bottles and socks. And our random supporter this week is Dylan Kidwell. So thank you so much for being a podcast supporter.

Dylan. We appreciate it. and you're getting bottle and socks. Email Nick with your address. Yeah, just email me with your address. Or, yeah, find me on Instagram. That might be easier. Okay, so moving on to questions.

Our first one is from Ryan. Hi, guys. Going to keep this short because I'm 0 for two and usually too long-winded with my TTR gratitude. Just know I have lots of love. My question is, how you stay on track with your evening routine,

mainly eating dinner and getting to bed on time. As an attorney, I occasionally have to work later in the evenings, which means we start figuring out dinner later and ultimately get in bed later than I'd like. And yes, sometimes Netflix doesn't help. This leads to me waking up later for workouts if I want enough sleep, currently training for 70.3 Chattanooga, getting to work later than I should and thus perpetuating the cycle.

I know your training hours are roughly the same each day, but how do you guys stay efficient and on track in the evenings so that you ultimately get to bed on time? Do you plan your meals in advance or have easy go-toes? Any rules about when to shut the TV and phones off? Just shred-tail bed? Mark, any tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks, y'all, Ryan. Man, I feel like the first thing that came to mind is this is a lot simpler for us to manage

when it's the wintertime. When it becomes summer and it's light until 9.30 p.m., all of a sudden, we do have to pay a little bit more attention to this, but generally the way, like, I feel like our lives are dictated is we're trying to finish the last workout of the day in time to eat dinner before we become so hungry that we're angry at each other. And that usually is around. like 630 at the latest. So we got to just, we're just kind of like naturally back up the day. And what I've started doing lately in the past year just to try to be able to sleep a little bit better is I really try to make an effort to like tell myself, I'm not going to work after

bed. So that's not an option. So I have to be more efficient with my time during the day, getting home from a workout, doing the thing on the email really quickly, even if it, you know, feels awkward and filling up a little bits of time in the day. the day. And then after dinner, it's like we're trying to have us time since on the bike doesn't always count and check that box and try not to do work. Probably feel the same. About how to stay on a regular bedtime routine. Yeah. Yeah, although Eric does work till the very last

second a lot of nights, although it's not his intention. It's just like busy. And he has a thousand and things going on. You know, I think everybody can have a different thing, but sort of having a couple of rituals that you need to check off. Like, I wake up in the morning and I make paula a cappuccino and then I make my coffee, but like while I'm doing the cappuccino, I'm having my bowl of cereal, and I've got like this list of things that I need to do before swimming. Similarly, at bedtime, I like to have an old-fashioned or some sort of an alcoholic

beverage that I actually have to mix. I'm not going to say every night, but a lot of nights. and that's kind of like, I know when I have that, this is just like, this is the end of the day, and that needs to happen fairly, you know, an hour and a half before bedtime. Yeah, sometimes if I'm just like sitting on the couch watching TV or on my phone or reading a book or whatever it is, and the time starts getting later, I'm like, why am I not just doing this in bed where I could have my teeth brushed and fall asleep right away? So putting yourself in bed, even if it's earlier than you want to be there, oftentimes you're so tired, you will just drift to sleep.

Whereas if you're not even giving yourself that option, then you're never going to be asleep early. What if you just like set a timer on your phone for 815 or 8 or whatever the time is to like brush your teeth? So you get in the habit of I always brush my teeth at 815. And that just starts your bedtime ritual cycle. And I bet a bunch of the time you'll just feel like getting in bed then since you're already headed in that direction or something like that. And if you're, Ryan, if you're trying to get as much stuff done before then, and I realize I have a very particular situation where I don't have a 9 to 5 job either, but something that helps me get things done before a certain time is plan out in like half hour

or hour increments what I need to do. Because sometimes we all have these abstract ideas in our head of like, I need to go to the hardware store, then I need to answer emails, then I need to do a bike workout. And we kind of sometimes get a little too optimistic about how long those. things actually take to do. And for me, at least, having them written down in my calendar, I do. We.

For me, having them written down a calendar, it kind of lights the fire a little bit to like, okay, I actually have to get this done before 6 p.m. Because at 6, I have to start this other, whatever it is. That has helped me kind of become a little more productive. So maybe that would help you too, right? Yep. There's a bunch of little hacks, routines, just trying to establish some things and go to bed might be the third thing in the routine. Yeah, exactly.

Okay, next question here is from Chris with a K. Hey, guys, thanks for the pod and all the content. Absolutely love it. I wanted to get your thoughts and suggestions on men's cycling shorts. Are there brands you'd recommend that don't break the bank? I'm still just getting into triathlon, and I'm looking to try and find a quality pair of cycling shorts under $100. and haven't seen many reviews on cycling shorts. Thanks for any help you can throw my way, Chris.

So what are cycling shorts? I'm going to guess that cycling shorts, what we're referring to here, are... Bibs. Are not bibs. There are two different types of things that you could wear on your lower body while riding your bike.

They're cycling shorts, if we're going, you know, by the book of the term, which means there are no straps on them, no suspender-type things. The ones that have suspender-type things are called bibs. Generally speaking, cycling company's most high-end offering is going to be bibs, as is their second and third highest offering. So a lot of the times, and unfortunately, I'm just trying to figure out how to say this, but unfortunately, you get what you pay for with cycling

things that go on your lower body, shorts or bibs, unfortunately. If you're going to pay under $100, it's going to be actually half as comfortable as something that is in the $200 range, $150 range. My thought would be if you can go to a reputable brand and try to find some of their bibs or shorts, their mid-to-high-end ones that are on sale, that might be your best bet for getting something in that $100 price range. Otherwise, like a retail $100 pair of shorts, having worked in a bike shop, people that buy those frequently we see them, would see them back in the shop within a couple months going,

you know what, you were right, and I believe that I am going to bike a lot now, and I'm going to upgrade to that really nice pair of shorts, and they are always so glad that they did. This was me. This is exactly my story. When I first started cycling, I thought the bibs looked weird and nerdy, and like I looked like an old-timey wrestler or something, and so I bought shorts. I bought like affordable cycling shorts, and I didn't know any better, so I thought they were fine until I bought my first pair of bibs and the difference was insane. The biggest difference is just that the suspenders, they like really pull the shammie up against your body and they allow it to like be pressed up against in a way that it doesn't shift around while you're riding.

The shorts, I was, the shammie was always moving around and it was causing me discomfort and saddle sores and just it also looks strange because it looks like you're kind of wearing a diaper when it's not really sucked up against you a little bit. Yeah. You know what? I mean, as one who has started at the bottom of gear technically was, I got all of my initial stuff when I got into triathlon as a kid from swap meets. I don't want to say, like, don't get that $100 pair of shorts.

You can do it. But be prepared for when you buy something a little bit nicer to be pretty excited. And you guys all wear the nicest stuff. I, who am also a little more price conscious, for bibs, also only get the nicest stuff because it's like right up against your body. Yeah. As far as brands, unfortunately, this is a little bit out of our wheelhouse since we do wear the nice stuff.

But looking around on Kistelli's site, they have a new short that just came out called the espresso short. That's $149. That might be a good option. They also have the competition, Bib short, which is the short that we do as part, like when we do a custom collection. through Kistelli. That's the short that we do. I think that's really nice. Maybe I'll add some to our TTL garage sale.

Yeah. I don't have experience with their bibs shorts or their shorts that are lower than that. But I do. I think Kestelli makes really good stuff and they're going to try to pack as much valuable as value as possible into that $150 bib short. Yeah. Cool. Don't be afraid of bibs, Chris. Next question here is from Grace And it's first of two New Jersey themed questions, okay? So get ready for some jersey.

All right. Hello, triathlon friends. Paula, what was the short wetsuit that you wore in Clash Miami? I'm looking for something to brave the mildly cold waters of early spring New Jersey outdoor pools. Thank you, Grace. Paula, did you wear a, would you call it a wetsuit what you wore in Miami? No, that's why I put the same because I think a lot of people might be confused of the difference between these two things. that was actually called a swim skin.

So it's a tactile fabric. It does add a little bit of warmth, but not something that would really add valuable warmth for the amount that you'd have to pay for one. What it does more, I think, for the reason we wear it is that it covers all the pockets, like it's a very tight, streamlined, faster fabric than your trisuit.

so we're allowed to wear those if it's a non-wetsuit swim. If you're looking for something for warmth, I would maybe pick like, I don't know, a lower-end wetsuit or a thinner wetsuit. Like we wore the Zone 3 Aspire. That was like a very thin. That might be kind of good for something,

I don't know, open water swimming in the spring. What about the orca flex? Wasn't that kind of like it didn't add much warmth? The york flux is very thin too, yep. It's not cheap, but, We did say that in our video, that if we're going to be doing a very chilly pool swim, like the heater's broken type of day. We'd wear the orca flux.

Be perfect for that. Another thing that I've felt that actually makes a big difference more than you would think is wearing the floaty shorts. Most companies make a set of shorts that are flotational that are kind of designed to mimic a pole buoy. But just having that amount of neoprene, you know, between your waist and your knees, can also make a little bit of a difference on being warmer. Paula, for that swimskin that you are wearing, do swimskins help your buoyancy at all? not technically, but they are a little bit more buoyant. Or maybe it's just that they're so, like the fabric's almost water repellent, so you feel faster in it.

It's not really having the effect of floating you, but it definitely is faster than wearing a bathing suit alone or a tri-suit by itself or skin. So they, yeah, they are very fast. You can tell the difference, but not as fast as a wetsuit would be. Yeah. Yeah, Generation 1 swimskins did have buoyancy to them, but they, outlawed those like, I don't know, six years ago now. So if you're Grace, you're not buying a swimskin to just swim in New Jersey outdoor pools, right? A swimskin is kind of a race tool.

Yeah, that's not going to make a difference enough. And they're also just so fragile that they wouldn't really hold up to swimming in a chlorinated pool every day. I sort of treat them like race shoes. Like they're not really meant to be worn for training. They're a race-specific thing. They're faster. they're delicate and you want it to last as long as possible. So, yeah, probably not the right thing.

But there's got to be some brands that make like a shorty wetsuit or something that you could use for this purpose. I guess you could do a swim run wetsuit, but generally speaking, shorty wetsuits are just really low-end wetsuits. They're not going to feel good, but if that's not of a concern to you, then. Yeah. Shorty being like short sleeves, you know, like a tank top style and like west leg. Corian just also.

eats up everything a little bit. Even wetsuits. Yeah. You just got to be prepared for that. Yeah. Okay. Next New Jersey question here is from Kyle. Hey, TTLNesh.

Love you guys. Love the pod. Look forward to it each week. I'm racing Exeterra, New Jersey next week. April 28th and have some concerns about fueling. Eric, how do you feel for these during the race? I have a good strategy for pre-race fueling based on previous experience, but I'm concerned about limited opportunity during the race,

especially the bike for in race fueling. Can't wait to hear you race again, Eric. Best to all of you, Kyle. I just looked at the Orca website and they have swim run wetsuits, which are really nice looking things. They're like short sleeve, short shorts. But I think because they're built for swim run, they'd actually be very comfortable to swim with.

So take a look at those. They have all different models that are different prices. I've never personally tried one, but this could be kind of what this person might be looking for. I'm going to try one this year. I would report back. Oh, yeah. Okay, so Eric, what do you think?

You in the past have said that like a bladder on your back would be a good option. Do you still stand by that? Yeah, if you're really concerned, throw a hydration pack on in T1 and then you've got the straw right of your mouth. We're even talking just, for example, about Paula going back to the Shiv try just for this reason. So you have like super reliable, easy to get nutrition.

Because even on the roads, it can be the time when you think you're going to like take some nutrition on this. there's a crosswind or you're going downhill too fast, et cetera. So I think, yeah, the hydration pack is a great thing. If you don't do the hydration pack, then I personally don't rely on gels. I put all of my nutrition in the bottle, try to front load, put a lot in one bottle so that like every time I take a swig of that bottle, I'm getting a lot of calories in there. That's my strategy because, yeah, a lot of times it's just you have so few options.

You've got to maximize everyone you get. And would you say it's a good idea? idea because Eric, you're a very experienced bike handler and a very good bike handler, but for anyone else, like, practice this a lot in training, pulling a bottle out while going over obstacles, if that's something you think will happen in a race? Totally. And also get to the Xera a couple days in advance so you can pre-ride at least some of the course and keep that in mind.

Think, here is the place where I'm going to fuel. And like, remember that tree. Remember that whatever it is. And you're like, take, don't forget to take on nutrition here on this flat spot because I know for the next 40 minutes, it's going to be hard to try to get some nutrition in. Eric, this makes you think about when I'm racing and sometimes in like a road triathlon and I have a gel or glues or blocks or something and it's hard to open the packaging. Okay, imagine doing that while riding a mountain bike is just a nightmare.

You're never getting that open. So I feel like the drinking the calories has to be the way to go. Yeah, simplify, simplify. Cool. Next question here. This is kind of a bike tech with Eric question, but I feel like we can kind of address it as a family here. Bike tech with the team.

Yeah, remix, remix. Okay. Hey, all. Eric said you've been using squirt lube lately. I know you aren't supposed to de grease once it's on there, but I am still getting nasty black buildup on the chain and drive train. How do you go about cleaning this part of the bike with a wax-based lube on there? Thanks, Kinley.

I'll just hand it over to you. What I do is I wipe the chain down really well. Like I hose it off sometimes when we get back and it's super gunky, but, you know, for the most part, just wiping it down really well and then applying some more wax for our training bikes is, it checks the box for me. Yeah. What's the most proper thing? Silka says to do basically exactly what you just said, which is to wipe down the chain with a rag and you get most of the contaminants off like that, and then you can reapply the wax. And they've basically found through their testing, and we're just taking their word for it here, that even with minor, road grime on there, it doesn't really affect the efficiency of the chain. Not measurably so.

So wiping it down in most cases and then reapplying the wax is perfectly fine. However, if it gets really bad, what they tell you to do is boil water and then put the chain in boiling water and that then rewax it after that. That can kind of get everything off of there and is perfectly fine. And make sure, you know, if you can dry the chain as much as possible before you put in the wax, you can use compressed air or you can just kind of like really shake it around in a paper towel or something like that let it drip dry and then wax it that's fine too but I would bet that

Kinley is there's something wrong here because you change like are your gravel bikes Eric also wax chains? Yeah and that stuff that you write through all kinds of stuff like there's the moon dust but then there's also mud and stuff and those chains stay mostly clean yeah certainly enough that when I fairly tight grip around the chain while spinning the, you know, with the cranks backwards,

I can get off most everything. And then every once in a while, like, I don't know, once a week or something, I'll go on and then like kind of really wipe it down. But then, yeah, I'm just applying another drip on every single pivot point. Yeah. Just a reminder, Kinley, that, right, the proper whack setup is you have to fully strip the chain of any lubricant from the factory or otherwise. it's really best to start with the new chain.

And same with your drive terrain. When you first put that wax setup on there, should be completely clean. That's how it's designed to work. So why haven't our ancestors always use wax chains? Why is it like suddenly every question I get on the podcast is about wax chains? Because it's a hot topic, but they've had wax-based lube since I started cycling. It just was not like the go-to thing.

And I don't think they were doing a bunch of testing. They didn't have maybe the apparatus to test chain efficiency based on different lubricants. Well, also, I have a friend who was into wax chains a while ago, and he's kind of told me the whole story behind it, and there is, it was hard to do back then. Now people have made it really easy to do. Like, you needed your crock pot and your different emulsifiers and chain strippers. Well, they've kind of made products that all in ones. You just put the chain in there, shake it around, and strips the chain of all the lubricant. And then you melt this wax at a specific temperature, drop the chain in, pull it out, and it's good to go. We're extremely savagely into the weeds on this, I think. Anyway, moving on. Next question here is from Sarah from the UK. Huge fan of the TTL community. I have recently recovered from a double mastectomy.

I was a semi-decent amateur triathlete. However, my days of competition are sadly over. I want to remain in the sport. How do I get into the event organizing side of things? Paula, I know your mom is involved. Actually, she said mum. I know your mom is involved in this area. Thanks for everything you do.

Love Sarah from the UK. P.S. are you coming to London in July? First of all, sorry to hear about that, but I think it's super cool that you still want to be involved. And yes, my mom is a race kind of director, a race competition manager. She's very involved with all of the World Cups and PTO events that have gone on in Edmonton and is actually still kind of working for the PTO. She was in Singapore and very involved. But I think the whole thing started when, just because I was in the sports. and she started by being the transition official.

And then she just kind of like moved up the ranks because she got to know the ins and outs of it. And she made connections with the city. And she's just very efficient and good at it, very well organized. And year after year, the relationships you build with volunteers and with the city of Edmonton, they just get stronger and stronger. So having the same person manage it just kind of enforces that role. So I think for someone who wants to get into it, the best step might be to go. to a USAT race or I don't know if an Ironman race would have the same effect, but something that's

local to where you live and start with maybe a little bit of a smaller role within the race. And as you get to know it and as you like do it more and more, you can take on more responsibility and see if you actually enjoy doing it. And that's sort of how my mom ended up so deep in it right now. But I think there's just so many different ways you can just start as like, volunteering at an aid station. And then next year, maybe you're the aid station Marshall official guy.

And then you're, you know, so it can grow as much as you want it to grow. And trust me, there's no shortage, or there's no, there's never too many volunteers at a race. And I think, like my mom's in a role now where she's paid for it, but it started with volunteer work. So. It seems like a good way to go. I'm sure you could reach out to any local race or bigger race.

like info at St. Anthony's triathlon.com and say, hey, here's a thing that I want to do. I'm just curious if I can be involved in whatever capacity you need me to be involved in and kind of start to learn the pathway and the ropes of how to be way involved. Yeah, I will say that

there are so many layers to putting an event on and as athletes who just kind of roll up and the whole thing's done and ready to go and seemingly very organized and smooth, it takes like a year to put a race on like that. Everything from the course, to shutting down roads, to organizing aid stations, to having, you know, a venue.

It's just there's so many people and so many layers involved to the races that I think in any capacity that you want to help, they would welcome you with open arms. So we were talking about this question before we started the podcast because I reached out to Paula's mom actually and she texted me back and she said, how did you get this number. What? I'm kidding. It's a joke. It's a ha-ha. But Eric, Eric suggested becoming a potentially race director certified by USA Triathlon. They do have a program. I think it's like $350 to do the program. Yes, it's $350. I will say that it says right on here, while certification is not mandatory for race directors who sanctioned their events with USA Triathlon, the program is extremely valuable

to both new and seasoned event directors. This is from USA Triathlon themselves. So, it could be a kind of interesting way to at least have a better understanding of how all the things work, and then you also get certified. I thought Eric came up with a good idea there. Yeah, that was cool. Are you going to London in July? Yeah, I'll be there. Okay, sweet. As long as I don't break my hand before then, crash out. Right, of course. Okay, next question here is from Megan. Hi, hi, all. Has Eric ever considered doing bike tech and maintenance videos? I've used GCN quite a few times for putting on a new chain cleaning, indexing gears, and even an at-home

fit would not recommend. Especially if you're by yourself. I feel like getting an at-home fit by yourself that's really tough. Eric has a video skills and know-how to the max and it would be great to use his versions. Best of luck this season, Megan. What do you think, Eric? Have we ever talked

about this before? We have talked about this. I've talked about this with no less than 46 people. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, it's the thing that I totally recognize would be very valuable to people. It would be good for us to do. It's a time constraint thing. It's a trick for me to put out one video every week about just what we're doing anyway while maintaining the triathlon life community and maintaining the website

and like planning future launches and getting my training done. So it's really just a time constraint thing. Would love to do it. I do think we will do it though in the future. It is something we're definitely, it is on the radar. I can tell you what it'll take. It'll take Nick flying up here to bend, setting up the cameras, planning out the episodes for the most part.

I can contribute a little bit. Yes. And then editing. That feels doable. That feels totally doable. Do you think that would be, how much more effective would that be at conveying the information than just talking about it on the podcast, which takes a fraction of the work.

I'll tell you infinitely more because I don't want to have to go through a podcast to find it. I want to click on YouTube and be there in 15 seconds with a visual aid. Right. Like three minute long videos that get straight to the point. Yeah. No, I think it'd be cool. It'd be cool to do. It's just, it's tough.

Yeah. The garage is definitely set up with the proper aesthetic. I set up the garage with the aesthetic with this kind of a thing in mind for sure. You know what our goal should be in the video is no time wasted at the beginning. So people just click on it and it's instantly information. Not like, hey, this is us. Unlike the podcast. Unlike the podcast where we do the first 20 minutes, just screwing around.

No fluff. All killer, no filler. Okay. Next question here is from Rachel. What's the coolest spike helmet color? I know, I know. The coolest helmet is the one that fits you right and protects you, blah, blah, but assuming all things, even with fit safety and performance,

what color should I be considering for my next helmet? white, black, neon yellow, coordinated with my bike or trisuit. I'm a true age grouper just out there to finish and have fun. I did the bike leg of my first 70.3 in vans. Ask me anything. Yeah, thanks. Thank you, Rachel. Okay, so first of all, is there any kind of unwritten rule about your helmet matching a certain part of your bike or your kit?

No. Yeah, I would say this is a complete personal preference. I personally think white helmets look good, look the best. They go with everything. They're highly visible when you're out on the road. Yeah. Black helmets are also fine, but white is kind of my go-to. If I could have like multiple colors of helmets to match certain different, you know, whatever, kits, I guess, and money with no object, then cool.

but I think black or white is very safe. I like your color, Nick, that you have this is like a creamy. That also I think is neutral enough that could go with a lot of things. But it's not like, it's not like bar tape where the bar tape has to be the same colors as the saddle and the saddle has to be black. I had a local guy yell at me because he told me that my helmet had to be the same colors as my shoes. And I had never thought of that once until that moment. I mean, that is just like an easy, obvious thing to try to match top and bottom, just bookend it. And what's nice is like it's not like your kit or your bike that will change.

Like you're wearing the same shoes on multiple bikes and with multiple kits. So that's at least consistent. We've actually had Otimo Designs as an artist in Europe and he's painted TT helmets for us before. He's offered to paint us road helmets as well where you just send him in a blank and you give him kind of a vision and he'll put words on it or he'll paint it any color you want. It's super cool. We haven't actually done it yet with this year's helmets because we were just kind of more recently testing which helmet we were going to use for racing. But if you want to get really fancy, that's a fun way to go. I think Birdworks also does helmet wraps.

Like you can get really custom with helmets if you want to match your kit. But the problem is you're like changing your kits all the time. So if I want to paint my helmet to match my race kit, it's not going to match like other kits that I wear. So I don't know. It's white is just the safest, easiest way to go. Moving on to next question here from Charlie, are the corduroy hats from Eric's Instagram story for sale? This is an insane story, but I'm going to tell it. Those corduroy hats, we're actually supposed to say tarathlon and cursive on them.

The company that we work with messed them up. So the ones that you see are for sale, but the trathlon cursive ones will also be happening at some point in the future. So if you want a corduroy hat, you are in luck. We have two options coming out. the first one that you've seen with the square and everything, that's going to be part of the Ventura collection, which will drop not this Sunday, but the next Sunday. And if you go to the website, you can see a countdown timer for that

and look at it and see all the things. I think people might be confused with what you're saying about triathlon and cursive. Like, that sounds really dumb, but it was inspired by Lindsay Corby had a hat that just said salami on it in cursive. And it was kind of funny. And she's like, oh my gosh, you guys should make one that just says triathlon on it. And it's like not branded TTL. It's just, you know, kind of random, but also kind of funny.

Yeah. And we thought people might like it. It's my favorite thing that TTL has done in terms of gear for a while. I think it is so, so, so cool. Yeah, hopefully no one steals this idea before we can get these hats released or made. Well, they're already being made. They're already being made. Okay, good.

Anyway, you're going to have two options at Corduroy hat, but the first one will be coming out with the whole Ventura collection. Cool. And our last question here is from Matt. from Texas, is it possible to swim too hard and blow up the rest of the race? Seems everyone agrees you can definitely bike too hard and ruin your run or start the run too fast, but for the swim, is it wise to hold back some and just give 80 to 90% effort to save energy for later? Or is it generally okay to swim as hard as one can for the 1.2 mile or 2.4 mile distance

without fear of it haunting them later in the race? Is it different for pros versus age groupers? please settle this debate for me and my friends. We've been on about it for months now. P.S. y'all are incredible for doing this each week, and thanks for everything that is TTL. Matt from Texas. Yeah, I put this in because I think it's a super interesting question

that we talk about a lot when we think about swim training and how hard we train in the pool. And a lot of the reason we train so hard is not necessarily to get faster at swimming. It's to get fitter at swimming. So it affects you less when you're on the bike and on the run. So for Eric and I, I think our level of fitness, the amount we swim every week, the intensity of the swims that we do, are really help, they really help us be able to go 100% in the swim or 95% in the swim and have that not really impact the rest of the race. Whereas if your swimming fitness is not as high and you're only swimming one or two times a week or you don't have a swimming background, you really might have to dial it back to 80 or 90% just so that you can get out of the water and still be able to ride and run.

effectively to your potential. So I think that's the biggest question you have to ask yourself is what's your swim background and what's your swim fitness like currently? I have gone through both sides of this. I'm fully obviously, I'm nowhere near the level you're at. But when I first started triathlon, I remember asking the specific question to two different coaches and getting two different answers. One of them said, go as hard as you can, treat it like a time trial. And the other one saying like, of course not. You still have to bike and run, give it like 80%. I now find in myself that those first races, even if I wasn't going that hard in the swim, when I got out of the water, I could like barely move because I was so exhausted by it. And now I go relatively harder in the

swim and can run out of the water. It's exactly what you're saying. Like the swim helps you be less affected by the swim in the race so that you still can do stuff later on. Another thing you might have to consider a little bit is the temperature of the water. And I'm just thinking about Sam Long in in Singapore, he sounded like he was conservative in the swim. Like, he's already not the best swimmer, but he maybe went at 85% of what he would normally go at because he didn't want to overheat. And then he got on the bike and he still felt good and he caught everybody and he caught everyone on the run. So it's a little bit condition dependent as well. The speed or how hard you can go in the swim. If it's really cold, going hard is fine. If it's really hot, maybe ease back.

a little bit. But it is different for pros because we're thinking about making packs, you know? Like we don't want to miss the train of people. We want to minimize damage to Lucy Charles, stuff like that. But in an age group race, you're a little bit more in your own world, I would say, and less impacted by if your swim is 30 seconds slower or faster. Yeah, I would say that's the major difference is that like the amount of time that's going to take us to recover from a swim that's 11 out of 10, that is the point where it can make or break our race getting into that pack. But as an age group where you just kind of kind of, you got to weigh, like is swimming 11 out of 10 can then make me one minute faster and how is that going to impact the bike? Because it will definitely impact the first 20 minutes of the bike.

I don't think it's like over biking where then your entire run is ruined. I still think you can come back from the swim, but you just got to make that call. Well, let me ask you guys, if you were doing a time trial triathlon, what, what percentage percentage effort would you give on the swim, would you say? Maximum. 100. Yeah, I just think we're so finely tuned at this point. We've done so many triathlons that even if we're thinking go as hard as we possibly can,

our body is throttling it back to like eight and a half and it knows what we're in for. Because we're doing an 1800. It's different than if you're doing a 400. Like intuitive, our body kind of knows how fast it can go. But it sounds like both of you, you do get a fat. If you go hard in the swim, it does affect at least the beginning of your bike. And that's just kind of a part of the racing. Yeah.

Or how fast you can run through transition, which is super critical as a pro. Right. Yeah. It's inescapable. Everything affects everything else. I think that's good. Next week, we'll do a little recap of Eric's race in St. Anthony's. And we'll probably be in St. George already, getting ready to race.

Nick, you're not racing St. George, right? That's correct. Although I love that race, but I am going to come. Okay. Nice. So we'll all be there. We're toying with the idea of doing a little pop-up, not a pop-up to sell stuff, but just like a meat-and-grate. We might bring some bottles to give away, something fun like that.

Like what we did in Ocean Side. Yeah, that would be fun. Thanks for listening to everybody. Yeah, Nick still has a bike workout to do, so we're going to let them go. Yeah, I do. We'll wrap this up super quick. Yeah. Thanks, you guys.

We'll chat with you next week. Bye. Bye.