That Triathlon Life Podcast - Double intense workout days in triathlon, TTL Devo athlete John Reed joins in, and more!

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

This week we chat a bit about T100 San Francisco, we meet TTL Devo athlete John Reed, and answer your pressing questions about Triathlon! Dealing with old dry tire sealant T100 San Francisco course��Double intense training daysDifferent ways to mount/dismount your bike in a raceHandling and optimizing post race fatigue Should a triathlon coach give nutrition advice?When to take your first masters swimming classTTL Devo athlete John Reed joins us for a chatPaula talks about the process of filming the Nike commercial "Snow Day" she was featured in.Come watch the world’s best professional triathletes as they race around the streets of San Francisco at the T100 Triathlon on Saturday June 8th: T100 San FranciscoThank you to our incredible podcast supporters. To become a podcast supporter, and to submit your own question for the podcast, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey, everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggestrom. I'm Paula Findlay. I'm Nick Goldstein. It is 717 AM. Oh, we have never, ever recorded that early, ever. This is kind of ridiculous, but Nick is traveling back across the country at snail speed because he's looking at things and he has a Tesla and he went to Mountain Film, which is in Telluride, Colorado, slash the forest reach of the galaxy. It's wild. When I looked at it, you know, when we had,

controlled burn in that film festival a couple years ago. I was like, yeah, of course I'm going to go to where our film is first shown. Like, oh, I'll just fly there. But then you get a rental car and then you drive like nine hours. Or you drive 47 hours to get. It's like in this crazy part of the country that it's no significant airport goes right to. This is why it's so crazy when it's a film festival is amazing. And a lot of really cool people with busy schedules show up.

And every year I'm like, how did you do this? It takes like a whole two days to get here. Like Jimmy Chin comes important. movie and mountain movie people come. It's a big deal. It's my only conclusion. We're going to come next year because hopefully we'll have a film in the festival together. Yeah, we are, I guess you could say we are currently working on.

It's a very long, drowned out process, which I'm learning slowly. But Nick and I are currently working on a film that we're doing this summer. We already shot the first part. It was in Ventura, California. And in a couple weeks, we're going to be going up to Vancouver Island in Canada to shoot part two. be four parts total. It's going to take place over the whole summer. And then we're going to try to put it out in the fall. So hopefully that will be in Mountain Film next year. How do you get a film into Mountain Film? You just make it really, really good. Cross your fingers. Do you know what's cool actually about the film festival thing? For the most part for film festivals, you submit it. You just submit it. And it's like $60 or something. It depends on the festival. You submit it. And then they watch it. It feels a little bit more democratized than music, let's say. Because you're like, hey, my film is good, put it in.

Yeah, it's a little less like, I don't know. It's one of those things where when you see a movie, and you can tell right away that it's done well with a song, it's a little more subjective and people can like all kinds of different qualities of things. Anyway, you just skip the full intro of the podcast. Sorry, that was my bad. You're right. That was my bad. That was my bad. Paul and I are both professional triathletes.

Nick is a professional musician, amateur triathlete. You're like not quite the middle of the pack, middle front of the pack. upper middle. But he brings this perspective of, you know, sometimes Paul and I don't realize that we're saying something that maybe doesn't make sense to somebody who's doing their first triathlon soon. So that is our dynamic.

We try to have a good time. We answer questions and talk a little bit about what's going on in trathlon and our lives as we train for trathlon. By the way, every time I walk into a hotel room now, I open the door and I go, Eric, you in here? Come down to the lobby, Eric. We need to talk. And my heart rate just went up a little bit.

Yeah. A little PTSD. That's from when the manager walked into Eric's hotel room when he was in Alabama. Oh, yeah, yeah. So now I just always picture Eric's sleeping peacefully in a bed and me interrupting his slumber. I mean, to be honest, you guys, that's why they have those little like bolt locks where you lock the inside. Let me just tell you. Have you ever gone to sleep without that?

No. Yes. I've never flashed one of those until this night when I got back to my hotel room. But let me tell you this. This hotel room manager, he would have knocked that door down to get to whoever was inside of his hotel illegally. Persistent. But yeah, now we are both back in Bend for another week and a half until we fly out for PTO. Actually, we fly out a week from yesterday.

We fly out a week from yesterday. We've already been here for a week. But we're flying out for the T-100 San Francisco race in San Francisco. So, I mean, doing this podcast at 7 a. is good practice because the race starts at 6 a.m. Oh, man. I'm just slowly shifting my clock backwards to wake up earlier and earlier. This race is taking place, at least you're jumping off the same boat as the historic escape

from Alcatraz thing, which is always early because you have to arrive at the ferry terminal and then the ferry takes an hour and a half to, you know, an hour to get out to the position to drop you off. But the pro race this year is slightly different and they have to start it brutally early. Normally it starts at like 9 a.m. So we're going to be up at 11 p.m. the day before, like, packing up bikes and driving down to the start. No, no, no. What they're doing, actually, is that you bring your bike down the night before because it's too dangerous to, like, ride your bike down to transition at 3 a.m. So they're picking us up at the hotel at 3.30 a.m., taking us to our bikes, which have been there all night.

You set up, and then you go to the ferry terminal, which leaves maybe at 4.30 or 5. and then the men start at six off the boat and the women start at 640. So we'll be on the boat for a while. But the reason for this is that in a big city like San Francisco, the limitations of how long you can keep roads closed for and stuff like that. In a day before, the actual escape from Alcatraz Race is kind of limited. So they've timed it out so that men and women are on course at the same time, but hopefully not overlapping.

And that's why we're starting so early. We'll be done by 10, I guess. And if anyone lives in San Francisco and wants to come watch, I think the risk of having a race this early is there's going to be nobody watching. And that creates kind of a dull vibe like there was in Miami. We actually have a solution for that. Jordan Blanco, a good friend of ours, and a friend of the podcast, is organizing a coffee and donut cheering situation. We'll leave a link to that in the show. If you want to hang out, there's going to be some prizes and stuff.

It will be worth your time. So check that out if you're going to be in the area at all. But we'll do a little more of a deep. We'll get into the PTO, the T100 thing a little bit next week because we have one more podcast before Paula jumps off the boat. Eric, am I crazy? I mean, didn't we ride bikes to the start when you did the race last time? Yeah, dude.

Now that it's a big event, it's, you know, got to be safety first. And it is earlier. It is earlier, but still, I don't think it's unsafe, but I get it. They say you can. The option is there. Oh, okay. They just say they strongly discourage it. Oh, okay.

Well, there you go. It's not like they're being, you know, setting the rules super hard. It's just that I don't want to ride my bike at 3 a.m. I don't want to do anything at 3 a.m. Our Devo team is crushing it right now, and we want to get them on the podcast as much as possible, obviously. So this week we've got John Reed. He just got third place at Potoko World Cup. I guess when you're hearing this, it's been about a week and a half since then.

But that is one of the most brutal races on planet Earth, in my opinion. Both Paul and I have done it. I have not completed it. Yeah, we're stoked on that. So that'll be a little mini segment in the middle of this episode. And we're going to record it on video. So the supporters, we'll send you the recording of it so you can watch the podcast. Everyone else can hear it on this podcast with audio only.

And you can see our faces and John's face. We also have to give a shout out to Maya Watson on the Devo team who won 70.3 Victoria overall for the women. And we are super proud of her. She's from Victoria. So kind of a cool race to go and win. Our dad coaches her. Our lone representative to the Great White North. Yeah, she's the only Canadian on the team.

And she wore the kid. It was so exciting. And we're super happy for her too. So it's just crazy to keep up with the Devo team racing. There's so much going on. time they race, they seem to do really well. Yeah. We'll see if you can get Maya on at some point as well.

Yeah, I think she would like that. Yeah. This year, this team is firing. Firing. It's sick. I'm so stoked. Yeah. Unfortunately, one of the athletes, Zach has a little injury, but that's fine.

I think it's all part of the whole story. That is part of the game. Relatable. We could get him on too to talk about that, actually. Yeah, he's actually pretty well-spoken. He worked at UCI. in their media division. Whoa, that's cool.

Got some crazy pictures with like Loag Bruni at downhill world championships and stuff. He's an interesting guy. So we wanted to get every single one of them on the podcast at least once this year. But today is John. Yep.

Yeah. Well, speaking of podcast supporters, before we move on to questions, we wanted to thank you all to all of our podcast supporters. We are going to be doing that little extra video part. And also we are picking a random podcast supporter that Paula will be sending a bottle and socks to. and this week

our podcast supporter winner is Megan Ziegler congratulations Megan you are our grand prize winner of bottling socks just reach out to me with your address and we'll send that out to you right away

just in case you're wondering these are not just random socks that we have lying around these are not in case you're new here and we haven't done a good enough job explaining that we've got some cool

Castelli custom socks that say TTL on them and if anyone wants to sign up to become a support order. You can do that at. At that triathlonlife.com slash podcast, which is also where you can submit questions for the podcast. Okay, first thing we're going to do today is do a little bike tech with Eric. This one's from Tyler. I ran my road tires tubeless on hooked rims last year and they were

amazing. Zero issues top froth. But I left them on all winter in Canada. I don't hear any sealant and the tire bead seems to be glued on. Can I just top up the sealant and send it? Or should I take them to a shop and get the tire. I can clean out the old sealant. Love the pod, Tyler. The bead is stuck on the tire. So he's wondering if he can just pour new sealant in and send it. Oh, yeah, you're right.

I just can't imagine a world where your tires actually stuck on there. Yeah, you haven't lived in Canada. Really? You're serious about this. Well, I don't do tires. I don't know. My initial thought was, yes, it's going to feel like it's glued on there, but you just, you got to unglue it. If you let the air out and pinch the tire, it's going to come off.

No? Yeah, it might be very stock, but it'll come off. But all that is to say, I do think you can just top it off and send it. I'm a little anal, so I usually open it up. And if there's anything to be cleaned out, that I can get out just for, you know, my freak brain of not having any extra weight in there. I do it. But if you don't care, and this is on your training bike, I wouldn't sweat it. Also, I was reading online about people who have had issues about wanting to clean out.

out the inside of their tires with like dried up sealant. And something you definitely should not do is use like any kind of chemicals on the rubber to try to get it off that could potentially weaken the rubber. You know, it's not that big of a deal. No. Like windex and. Yeah. Yeah.

Toilet cleaner. Or something. Yeah. Nail polish remover. Bleach. Yeah. Do not use nail polish remover on the inside of your tires, please. You're just riding.

You're like, oh, look, I'm riding on my rim. Where's my tire? It's disappeared. Yeah. If you just take some acetone and rug. the outside of the tire. You'll get to the inside eventually. You'll have to take the tire off the wheel. You can clean it from the outside. It's magic. No problem. Nice. Okay, great. So don't worry about it. It's going to be okay. Okay, let's move on to

questions here. This one is from Joyce. Hello, gang. I was hoping you all might talk about the T-100 San Francisco. I suspect I'm not the only one with questions. There must have been pros who were planning to do the usual triathlon on Sunday. I assume there is no pro field on Sunday now. What are your thoughts on the course? The swim, if starting from Alcatraz, is not really 2,000 meters, more like 2,400. The bike course has so many hilly laps. The run course doesn't include the views from the Baker Beach or the iconic sand ladder. I realize the impact on the city had to be considered in mapping the longer distance, but just curious to what you think.

Bummed I won't see Eric fly by me on his run as I just get started on mine. Last year, I got to yell his name about two miles from the finish. Thank you, as always, for the podcast, the high-quality gear, and the community. Joyce Thanks Joyce I mean this is Your question sort of lays out

My entire thought process With applying for a wild card Do I want to race this race How'd I feel about it versus the way it's been in the past And you're You're pretty dead on I'm thinking of it definitely as the T-100 San Francisco race

Versus what was the pro race At Alcatraz At Escape from Alcatraz but they had to do this to make this more broadcast friendly, to make the course possible with the number of pro athletes that they're going to do. Historically, it's been like seven men, seven women. Now they've got like 25 men, 25 women.

Racing at the same time, they have to have cameras out, you know, so on and so forth. So I think it's cool they're still jumping off the boat, but yeah, not doing the sand ladder, not doing the Golden Gate Park loop and everything. It doesn't quite feel the same to me, which is part of why. I guess I'm not as upset about not taking part in it as maybe I would have been.

Is that why you think they're not doing those iconic things because of broadcasts? Because they want to be able to broadcast it properly? You know, Paula might be able to speak to it more, but that's my assumption. It's just like multiple loops versus one big loop on the bike, one big loop on the run. Well, they're just trying to get in an 80K bike and an 18K run versus the normal race is shorter. Oh, right. Right. And I think road closures, all the things that come into building a course, especially since now you're kind of spreading it over two days.

The age group race is still on Sunday. So it just limited their options. Yeah. I remember somebody in the race organization telling me that that corner where you come down to the beach and you turn left going to Golden Gate Park, there's actually like three different police jurisdictions that come together right there or something. And that's like $150,000 to shut down. that corner for the morning because I'm like all the time and a halfs and the different people you have to apply to and the permits. So skipping that part, definitely a financial plus.

Well, you know, it is, it is very pretty. But everybody who's doing the age group race, you'll still get to do it. So fear not. And you get to do the real OG Alcatraz. That's unchanged. I just want to say one thing about the OG race. Or it's a question for you, Eric. The OG race is very cool and it's very old, right? Like it's been going on for a while. And the distances are kind of odd. So you have that long swim, which is even longer than it seems because of the current situation. And then the, what, do you remember how long the bike and the run are? It's like, I think people think of it as like an Olympic distance race, but it's not. You think of it as an Olympic distance race, but what I love about it is that if you look at it in terms of the amount of time that you spend doing each activity, it's as close to like one to one to one as you're ever going to find in triathlon. on. So the swim can take 28 to like 40 minutes, depending on the current and the year. The bike

usually takes like 42 minutes. It's a little bit of a short bike, but it's very hilly. And the run is a long run. So that can take like 45 minutes. So you can have almost like 45, 45, 45, 45, 45. You get close to that, which is just kind of cool because it suits a very well-rounded athlete. They're on a lot of races in the world where it really helps to be a strong swimmer. And this just creates a very interesting dynamic where strong swimmers can make an impact and maybe stay away on the bike and maybe get caught late in the run. But you just have to be very strong at the end of the day because it's just a long day. That run gets real long. I think they should have still kept a pro race on Sunday.

Because there's so many really fantastic athletes that aren't in the T100 series like Eric, like Mark Dubrick, that. would put on a good show on Sunday and be able to race the OG race, which is completely different. And race for prize money. My guess is that the prize money has slowly been decreasing at Alcatraz

over the last few years. Like four years ago, it was 20 grand to win. Last year, it was like eight, seven and a half or something. It's kind of been slowly coming down. And my guess is that the organizer of escape from Alcatraz go, oh, wow, T-100 is just going to bring in a huge price

versus in bringing a huge thing of athletes. We can just take a chill on that aspect of our race this year. And my hope is just that if the T-100 decides to not use San Francisco next year, that the race resumes having their normal pro race. And it doesn't just kind of become this, oh, you know, we took a year off. And it's hard to start back up. And I just hope it doesn't get lost through the shuffle. It's such a cool race.

Yeah. Okay. Next question here is from Raphael. Hi, Flynn, Paula, Nick and Eric. Eric, I have a question regarding the order of the putting Flynn first is always a strike to the heart. I have a question regarding

training intensities on double days. Following some pros on Strava and YouTube, it seems very common in the profile to do two hard sessions in one single day. For example, a V02 Max or threshold workout on the bike and the run. However, in some of the training literature, for example,

Triathlet's Training Bible from Joe Friel, it is more often suggested to spread the hard sessions throughout the week and do only easier stuff following one of those sessions on the same day. Also, personally, I feel like after doing a V-O-2 max sessions on the bike, my legs are fried, and I can't really imagine going out for Hill reps on the same day. How is your view on that topic? Do you guys do two hard sessions at Zone 4 or above on the same day?

Do you see any sense in doing so? Big thank you for all you're putting into such great content every week. Best Raphael. Never bring up the training Bible. Is that a no-no? We'll just move to the next question. Is that a trash? Thon faux pa.

I think our coach laughs at it, makes fun of it. It's just, it was written a long time ago. You can learn some things about how to structure a week and whatever, but it's not like, it wasn't written yesterday. And I don't know, I think it's really interesting. My coach, our coach, Paulo always said, you know, like the people who know aren't talking, the people who don't know are talking too much. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And I'm not, no, I'm not to throw in Joe. for real under the bus at all. But the people who are like the best in the world at coaching and learning the stuff, like they're kind of a little bit more tight-lipped. Maybe the Norwegians want us all to believe that it's V-O-2 max, that's the sauce or, you know, like lactate testing. But who knows what like the real thing that is like the really difference maker? I don't think they're telling everybody. So anyway, that was a little bit of a preface, but yes, we definitely do two hard workouts on one day. We will occasionally, for very interesting times of the year, do like three in one day. That's not common, but a lot of the times we'll do like a hard swim

and a hard bike. Yesterday, Paula and I joined her, she did a hard swim and a hard run. And then we went straight into just an easy bike. So I think as pro athletes, we have built up the volume in our bodies. We can handle that. We need to be able to handle that for how hard 70.3 racing is for four hours. And if we tried to just, you know, take the, we need to do two hard bike work at the week, two hard run workouts, two hard swim workouts, if you just did one every single day, you'd never have a day that felt like it was chill or that was like a full recovery day. Yeah, I think the most common is to do a hard swim and a hard bike or run on the same day. We swim hard a lot of days and it really makes you tired for the next activity. And I think it's,

it's good in a way because in a 70.3, the nature of that kind of racing is you're never really feeling fresh for the run or for the bike. It's kind of like this activity where you have to push through fatigue. It's not like Olympic distance racing where you might feel a little fresh and poppier on the run. So I think maybe even if it's not back to back on the same day, consecutive days, like doing an afternoon hard ride and then a morning tempo run the next day, you still have that fatigue from the bike ride and it's kind of mimics the feeling that you might have in a race. But it's, I was my biggest, like, alarm bell on this was looking at what other pros are doing on YouTube or Instagram.

And that is not always real. Maybe it is real, but they're doing a complete, you're not seeing the full picture. You're seeing a snapshot of one day that maybe they do that's crazy hard. And you think you need to do that too. But who knows what they're doing for the other five days? Yeah. Nobody ever calls up a film kid and has them come out for their easy day. You're like, oh, man, in three weeks, I'm doing this crazy epic hero day.

And I want to hire somebody to come out and make a YouTube video about it. That's what's going on the internet. When you guys have those days where it's multiple hard sessions, even three, how much are you thinking about and planning around recovering between each activity? Or are you kind of just like, we do this, then we're just going to eat, and then we're going to do the next one? That we're thinking about like, can we squeeze in our podcast between the hard swim and the hard run before the easy bike and still eat enough and nap? That's what we're thinking.

And then the calls with the sponsors and then the calls with the wedding people and then the calls with Flynn's vet. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think going into a day like that, the biggest thing you can do is being topped up the night before. because on the day, like, you do a tempo run and you just feel like you cannot eat enough quickly, and then you got to just jump right into the water and making sure that you have, like, baseline enough glycogen stored up. And feeling during the workouts, too. Yeah, yeah. Treating it like a race.

But I think for an amateur athlete who's working, doing one session a day is totally fine, one hard session a day. I don't think there's necessarily any additional benefit to, like, running yourself. into the ground doing two, zone five or whatever he called his zones. Zone four. Zone four, whatever that is. Have you not read the training Bible, Paula? Gosh. We call it steady. Twice in one day. I don't know. That seems like too much if you've got other things going on. Versus it being your only focus.

I could see the weekend. You could do a hard run in the morning at the track on the weekend and then have a little bit of lunch and come back and do a hard swim at the pool. and then do your long ride on Sunday. I can see something like that. Yeah. But man, doing, as one who has tried to do this before, doing a hard workout in the morning before work, going to work, and then like trying to go do any sort of workout in the evening during the week,

brutal. And I don't know how helpful that is in the long, in the big picture. But you got to do what you got to do. You know, you guys saying that you need to fuel during those workouts to have a good day in general. It reminds me of watching the Tour de France and watching these cyclists, you know, in the middle of the race, like a week and a half into the race. race and they're they're like eating 10 minutes before the finish of a stage. It's like, well, why would you need to eat 10 minutes before the finish of the stage?

Well, it's not about that stage. It's about the next week and a half that you're still going to race. Yeah, they're just getting a 10 minute start on their post-race food. Exactly. Yeah, cool. Okay. Next one here is from Ryan. What is your preferred method for dismounting the bike into T2? Do you slip your feet out of your shoes while they're still clipped in and run barefoot through transition? Or do you fully unclip and run with the bike shoes on. I've been fully unclipping, clopping through transition like a Clydesdale horse with my bike shoes on, mainly because I don't think I was fancy enough to do the barefoot dismount. That was until last weekend at Chattanooga 70.3 when I nearly fell over at the dismount line

because my left shoe didn't fully unclip. Should I make the switch? Go full send and do the flying mount in T1 as well? How does that work with regular bikes versus tri-shoes? Just qualified for world, so I'm thinking it might be time to step it up. Thank you guys, Ryan. So if you're not a pro, is this worth it? Is this something that Ryan should be looking at? Sometimes they say you can't leave your shoes. Sometimes you cannot do it. Yep. But for example, Amaro Bay for me, they never mentioned it.

So I could have done it. Okay. But you didn't. I did not. I was clopping like a Clydesville as well. Why? Well, the main reason is because my fancy specialized shoes don't have a loop. And I don't have Sir Eric with a custom loopy thing to put it on the back of my shoes.

With old shoe lace and glue? You couldn't find those things? Yeah, I'm not. Yeah, correct. I could not find those things. It's fine. I would say, is it worth it? Probably not.

Does it feel awesome and way more better to run through transition barefoot instead of with bike shoes on? Yeah. If you're looking for something fun to learn, yeah, go for it. But practice on your street a bunch, especially the mount. I would say maybe doing the mounting, maybe not a big deal. Definitely don't push it on whether or not, you know,

comfortable enough to do that, but dismounting, taking your shoes out of the pedals, you've got time as you're coasting in, much less complicated. I would do that. Yeah, you don't need to do a flying mount, for example. Like a lot of people just stop, throw their leg over, stick it in the shoe that's kind of being held up by elastics, push off and they're already in their shoe. Even pros do that. The tricky thing with that is that it can make the other shoe like spin around, break the elastic, flop upside down. Yeah, it takes a second to do it. But what What I'm thinking for, I think it's completely a skill worth learning for age groupers because often the pros have transitions really close to the mountain dismount lines. So we're not even running that far.

But imagine if you're in bike shoes and you're running like 500 meters to your bike. You could go quite a lot faster with bare feet. So personally, I think it's a worthwhile, fairly simple skill to master or to at least be okay at. I never thought of this, but I think what Eric said is definitely the best way to start, but potentially the best solution, which is don't worry about the flying mount, but the dismount, like taking your feet out of the shoes, there's like very little downside to that in general. Like you're slowing down already, like Eric was saying, and then you get to run barefoot off the bike and you don't have to do any crazy thing with rubber bands that, you know, the shoes just stay on the bike.

And then you don't have to take them off in transition when you're next to your wet-st-year-run stuff. Yeah. You just unclip. Oh, you do the barefoot thing. I'll do the barefoot thing usually. Although in Moro Bay, I didn't because I was afraid my feet would be very cold. Right. Yeah, it's a little bit personal preference, but running with bike shoes is very awkward.

Yeah, not ideal. Just as a reminder, Ryan, people win world championships without doing flying mounts for 70.3 and full distance. Yeah. It probably won't make the difference, but I'm sure people out there have lost wins. and missed winning their age group or going to Kona by 10 seconds. And this could be that. You're right. You're right. You're right. Okay. Next question here's from Andrew.

High TTL crew. Racing in new fairaway places, fairway. Racing in new faraway places is one of the best parts of triathlon. But sore legs and fatigue can make the long trips home after a race excruciating, especially when we're stuck in the seated position. What should we do for recovery and injury prevention if we have a three to five hour drive or flight shortly after a race. With many long-course events on Sunday,

staying over another night isn't always an option. Keep on, keep it on. Andrew. I'll definitely fly to the race with your massage therapist, have them ready to go as soon as you cross the finish line, get that massage before awards, and then drink a lot of water. And have a lay flat seat on the way back, first class. Yeah, lay flat seat, get those normatechs that go just on your calves

that are pretty small and packed down. ideally get another massage when you get home. Well, if you can sweet talk a flight attendant into massaging. Well, all joking aside, those NormaTech calf sleeves are actually not a terrible idea. Yeah, that is actually a pretty good move. I don't know how much those cost, but I don't think they're as expensive as the main ones, but... No, they're cheaper than the main ones. We got ours at the feed.com.

Oh, my God. Not sponsored, but... It's amazing on the feed. They have so many things that are not just nutrition. You'd be blown away. Oh man Hashtag not an ad You guys

Would you guys hate us If our podcast was sponsored by the feed I kind of want to go to them and ask about it Okay Do some inquiries Okay I will I think it would be okay If we had like a title sponsor

For the show Not like okay hold on Not ad reads We're gonna read like six different ads That were prepared You know rather just like The TCL podcast Presented by Wahoo

The TCL podcast I kind of like that I'm into that by the feed. You're laughing, but you created this, so you're welcome to yourself. I'm not opposed. All right. Well, we'll put the podcast manager on it.

I would say just don't worry about how you feel after the race. I kind of like relish in the soreness. Like, oh, great, I'm sore. I'm so tired. I can't exercise. Perfect excuse to not exercise. A complete, yeah, feel not at all bad about taking one day or two. days or three days off. I don't know. Maybe if you got another race like in two days or something or even

the next weekend, you got to be a little more diligent. But for me, I'm just like, that was really hard. The mental stress leaning into a race is crippling. It's over. I am so glad it's over. Just chill. Don't worry about optimizing your body for recovery. You've already worried about that all week, optimizing your body for racing. Yeah, I think this might be just like a general discomfort on the airplane soreness and puffy legs and that's just that is what it is yep that's part of the thing enjoy that feeling too she'd be like yeah i did something that none of you other people on this airplane did yeah type two funning so hard maybe someone will ask you what you did and then just like oh perfect i'm so glad you asked yeah hopefully you're that person who loves to tell everybody

about it and you're wearing your race t-shirt and your finishers medal of course but i i mean if it's really a concern you can get up get an aisle seat try to walk around a little bit Yeah, I definitely try to go for the exit row. I just try to eat a lot. Like, immediately after, not just for recovery, but just because I'm hungry. And wear super shoes during the race that'll alleviate soreness. Do you guys ever wear those compression socks that are kind of designed for this to travel with? Yeah, back in like 2015.

When we cared more about our bodies, we did that. I can never tell, like, how much of a big different, like, yes, you can see that. there's like a little bit less puffiness and you know in your ankles or whatever but I've never had just like wow that was a life-changing sensation when I got to the you know our coach does for long-haul flights we should wear them but I don't listen to that and I feel like Paolo was so anti that like bro science stuff he like if he says it I feel like he probably thinks it really works oh yeah yeah I think that part of the problem with long haul flights if you're in economy is you do get so much swelling and your

ankles and your feet. And then if you get off the plane and try to run, high risk of injury. Yeah. We just avoid long haul flights at all cost these days. And another thing we avoid is running right off of a flight. Like we will swim, we will bike. But if you're flying and you land in like the afternoon and you still have time to train, we just avoid running as a rule. There we go. You got so much more information than you asked for. Yeah. You're welcome, Andrew. the next one. Hey fam, keeping it short, so Paula will pick it. Do you think it's necessary for a triathlon coach to give advice on nutrition? I've met a lot of coaches that do not give this expertise.

It almost seems like it's abnormal if your coach does give you advice on your nutrition, which is so crazy to me because you don't have that dialed in, you will bonk no matter how fit you are. We'd love to know your opinions on this. Thanks for all you do. Love you guys and the TTL community. Yeah, I don't know. I think this could go either way. It just depends on the coach. But I feel like nutrition is not wildly complicated these days,

just in terms of trying to match your energy expenditure to what you're bringing in. But if you want to get your salt intake dialed and certain, like you can get as crazy about it as you want, but I think just getting a baseline of not bonging your coach should be able to help you out with that. Yeah, maybe if you're talking about nutrition on a day-to-day basis, like breakfast, lunch, dinner, fueling around training, optimizing body composition, maybe that's beyond the scope of what your coach is willing to give advice for because they're specifically trained in coaching, not in nutrition. People get degrees for nutrition. Yeah. You go to school for that. But Eric's right that in terms of in-race fueling, in-training, fueling, how many grams of carbohydrates per hour? I think that's something your coach should be able to give advice on.

And if they can't, it's easy to find that information elsewhere without necessarily consulting an expert. This is such a good point. When I was reading this, I was thinking about race nutrition. But the race happens a few times a year. That's not what you're building your whole body and fitness on. It's like the day-to-day like you're saying, Paula. Yeah.

I could also see certain coaches just kind of depending on their pricing structure and whatever thinking that like nutritional, like that could be a fair. ongoing in-depth conversation you have with an athlete. And if you're trying to be a budget-friendly coach and I don't know what budget-friendly is, like charging $75. I actually don't have any idea. And then you think, okay, if I'm going to help this person out with the nutrition, that's going to be at least a one-hour, you know, like talks at some point in time or a phone call and there's going to be follow-up. And if you want that, that's a more premium thing or, you know, I'm either not willing to do it or that comes with an extra cost. I could see somebody thinking of it like that.

Kind of like strength training. Yeah. Like your triathlon coach, maybe they don't want to get into that prescription of strength training. Yeah. For a similar reason. It's just a completely other scope of knowledge and time that they'd be dedicating. Yeah. Like you guys have maybe Apollo like kind of vaguely prescribed strength work,

but then you have a strength specific coach that you work with that gives you specific workouts. Is that right? Apollo doesn't really prescribe strength training. But we do a little bit of mobility and we don't do a lot of gym work actually, to be totally honest. But from a nutrition standpoint, Paulo is, I mean, it's different for a professional coach who's coaching pro athletes. I think that he's not like, oh, you guys don't pay me enough to give you nutrition advice. He just wants us to perform the best we possibly can and nutrition is a huge part of that. But he's very well researched and knowledgeable in that sphere.

So for nutrition stuff, he helps us with it. But if we wanted to go and get it, he doesn't help us with our day to day eating, what to eat for breakfast, what to eat for dinner. How many calories a day? We don't talk about that stuff. It's more like fueling for training and racing. Yeah, right. Cool.

Okay, here's the one from Gabby, which is a question that I've had from time to time as well somewhat. Hi, all, when is it an appropriate time to take a first master's class for swimming? I don't want to jump the gun and show up to a session way over my skill level, making it unproductive for me and or the other swimmers. I recently graduated college where I played soccer and ran track, but I'm stoked to start a new multi-sport journey. Keep rocking and Gabby. Man, I guess I would probably start by calling the master's program, or if there's an email or something you can reach out to and say, hey, if I do three one-hundreds or five-one-hundreds, here's about what I'm. I come in on and here's about, you know, here's the time that I hit for each one and here's about how long I need to rest for, you know, to maintain that speed and that coach can tell you,

oh, you're totally good or, you know, maybe you should come to like a private lesson with me on Friday, you know, something like that. I would do that because it is going to vary wildly. The master's group that went on back in Portland, they were like won national championships and stuff. And so that maybe their slowest lane isn't that slow, but then in the middle of, you know, Ohio Florida or just anywhere else in the country, it could be completely different and it's much more beginner level. So I would just get in contact and find out. Yeah, I think like in Boulder, for example, Julie Dibman's coach is a master's workout, but it's kind of titled that way so that they can get the lane space in the pool, I believe. So Florida Duffy, Gwen Jorgensen, like all of these

Olympian, world champion people come to the master's group. So that that type of master's group might not be what you're looking for, but generally master's groups in most towns. that aren't bolder, will have a slow lane, in a medium lane, and a fast lane. And there'll be somewhere where you can slot into your ability level. But I think reaching out in advance is a good idea, just so you're making sure it's not the kind of group that's super competitive, full of ex-swimmers who swam collegiately, plus a bunch of pro athletes who are still training, because that does happen in cities too. But it's definitely the best way to get a good structured swim workout and enhances the

swimming experience tenfold. So if you can fit into a lane, I would highly recommend it. And I wouldn't be intimidated to reach out and try to make it happen. Yeah. No matter how fast or slow you are. And I think no matter how fast or slow, the fast people are, because like Eric said, I mean, email them because the master's group that swims

in my pool, I don't know, Eric, if you remember the lady who runs it, she's always like, oh, we have former Olympians here. But then I look at the slow people are. are quite slow to the point that anyone who's training consistently could keep up with those slow people. So there is probably real. But Eric, that's the solution, right? Just contact them and say, this is what I can swim. Is that appropriate?

Yeah. Usually master's coaches are just the most friendly people. They get paid nothing. They're there because they love it. And they love to help people learn to swim and get into it. So don't be intimidated. Their star probably paid a little bit. Yeah.

I mean, to wake up at 5 a.m., they better be paid something. Yeah. All right, now's the time. We have John Reid on the podcast. I'm super excited about this. I think everybody's super excited about this, but he had a great race, and he's a really cool guy. So we're going to ask him some questions about his triathlon journey and his racing with Tolco.

After we chat with him, we'll head back to regular questions format. So this is just like a quick little intermission to the normal podcast, but a nice treat for us. Perfect. Here's John. All right. So welcome to the podcast, John. John is ITU guy. Somebody told me that we need to start calling it World Triathlon from now on.

So we're just creatures of habit from back in the day. But you do the draft legal style of racing. Currently, U23. Last year, you got eighth at U23 Worlds, correct? This year, your goal is to win it. Yeah, I fucking love it. But yeah, you've had a great season so far. He's got third at Tokyo World Cup.

got third at America's Cup in Miami. Just a little bit of a moment to brag, we do podium bonuses for our development team, and John is going to make us go broke, which is we're psyched about. Yeah, yeah. We're happy about that. I think traditionally people may think that the Devo team is like long course athletes, but Eric and I come from a short course background. Like, you're in John, and it's really fun and exciting for us to watch your races.

and you have the logo on your kit, which is so cool for us. So, yeah, it's been fun to follow your path. And I think you're kind of in the quadrenial of like maybe L.A., 28 is kind of your target in terms of Olympics. But you got so much experience this year and talked about a little bit when we got on the call about maybe going to the Olympics as an alternate, but the U.S. has to announce their team still. So you're kind of waiting on that to hear the outcome.

But anyway, enough of us talking. Yeah. So where in the world are you? right now because you're moving all over the place. Yeah, it's been, it's been a bit busy right now. I got into Santa Fe last night and I'll be here, you know, in and out for races, but I'll be here through most of August, I think. And then we're going to Europe for a training camp kind of through worlds,

which is until mid-October. So this year's been a lot of kind of long training camps that are, I guess, just a couple months long. And so we were in Tucson technically through May, but in and out with a lot of races. And after my last race in Mexico, two weekends ago, I went to, I went back home, which is Virginia Beach, hung out for a week with the family and just kind of decompressed after, you know, a taco is the mark of like the spring, spring schedule just kind of done. And now it's summer training block. and then I don't think I'll race a ton this summer, but then prepping for a big fall. Nice. Yeah, that really brings flashbacks for me anyway to the kind of nomadic lifestyle of ITU athletes

and living out of a suitcase a lot of the year and kind of always on the move, traveling so much. And when you're young like you, it's fun. I got to a point in my career, I didn't want to do that anymore. But I think while you're kind of chasing the Olympic dream, it's really exciting. So it's kind of just part of it. You get really good at traveling. Totally, totally. I was kind of curious, like the differentiation, Morgan's going for the Olympics. You're obviously not going to the Olympics this quad, but focusing on U23 worlds.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe you'll get picked. Who knows? Yeah, I kind of, fingers crossed for like an alternate spot. I told Ryan and I kind of voiced to some of USAAT. I was like, I mean, I think they're going to pick for the relay. I know they're going to pick for the relay

And I've I did one relay like a year and a half ago And like the Fizu University games And that's the only one I've done And that was that was a bit of a mess And so I knew they're picking for the relay I have zero experience There's there's no like realistically I mean there's

There's no likelihood of that But I was like I'm young I'd love to get an alternate spot And just try and people around the atmosphere and get a feel for it. Because I think that would be super valuable. Just because everybody's like, oh, your second, or not everybody,

but a lot of people say the second games is definitely easier. Or just a bit more known. And so I was like, if I can kind of get a foot in the door with that, I think that would be super valuable. But, you know, we'll see. I think we get two alternates. So, I mean, who knows? I'm very interested to see who they end up.

Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. Did you get a chance to go to the Pan Am games or no? Because that can be a little bit of a dress rehearsal for what going to a game and having to be in a village and the whole securities and all the stuff can be like. Yeah, I was bummed to miss that. That was last year. And I didn't love USAT just their policy with it. The race wasn't until November, like early November.

And the cutoff for the qualification was. June maybe. And I think they had a couple. It was like, if you do well at this race or this race, you can auto qualify for it. And then if not, it just came down to world ranking. And so my ranking at that time wasn't super good. And then I had a, I raced Pat Co champs last year in September. And I won that.

And that race has a ton of points. And so I jumped up a lot. And I was like, oh, maybe this is a possibility. now and then I started like reading through the selection policies and I was like oh they essentially picked the team like four months ago yeah so I missed out I missed out on that which was which was a bummer it would have been cool partially just to go and then the USA swag box pretty sick too yeah yeah from my experience I've been I've been to both and I went to the Olympics first and then to Pan Am games three years later and they're completely different beasts

I think the Olympics, if you do get taken as an alternate, just to soak in that vibe and see what it's like, I think a lot of people can come back to their second Olympics and it's a lot less overwhelming. And you just have some experience in the village and what all of that is like. It's not like a WTS event or WTCS event that you're used to going to. It's a lot of rules about branding and logos and all the things that are kind of new. So, yeah, we're rooting for you to maybe go this year so that you can go win in L.A. in four years. But I think we should go back and ask about how you got into triathlon. I think so many people that follow TTR and watch the pros race wonder, what's the initial get-in pathway? Did you start as a kid?

Did you start as a swimmer or a runner? What was your initial triathlon? Yeah, I think it would be especially since you're in a pathway that is not, super well understood being in the draft legal chasing up the Olympics versus 70.3 is a little obvious yeah yeah um well it's kind of funny my my parents told me when they were watching the stream in hitalko they were like oh they were saying you have a huge track and cross-country background and you're running for the university of Utah and one that Utah doesn't even have a men's running program So I was like, I'll back check that.

And then I've never ran in high school or anything before. And so I was like, I'll take it as a compliment, I guess. But I grew up swimming, probably started swimming for a club team when I was six maybe. And pretty much just stuck with that. Both my parents were swimmers. And at least for me and my older brother, they're like, you're going to swim. You're not really going to do much else.

And so that's just kind of what we did. Yeah. And so they, my dad dipped his toes. He did a couple 70.3s in an Iron Man when I was pretty young, you know, pretty recreationally. But so I had, you know, kind of grown up watching that. And then I was hoping to swim in college collegiately, but didn't really have a whole lot of luck with that.

And the recruiting process was tough. and I wasn't quite at the level I needed to be at to swim at a school that I wanted to go to. And so I kind of let that ship sail and then COVID hit. And then all the pools closed and I was like, I got to do something. And so my dad had like an old TT bike. And so I was taking that out. And we were in Virginia Beach at the time. And they had tons of group rides.

And so I slowly got kind of plugged into the community there. and had a blast with it. Like every morning I would rip, you know, 50, 60 miles in a group ride. And I had no clue what I was doing on a, you know, on a TT bike and a group ride with like a Walmart helmet and a sleeveless kit. And I just, and my dad was like, oh, you can't wear socks, you know, you're going to be a triathlete. And so I just, I looked so bad. But I was pretty fit just from all the swimming.

And so once I kind of figured out how to ride in a group, Like, I had a lot of fun, and, you know, I wouldn't say the cycling scene in Virginia Beach is anything elite, but it was pretty fun just to do when my days were super open with, this was my senior year in high school, which, you know, everything just kind of went to crap. So you really didn't even get on a bike until COVID years. That's crazy. Senior year of high school, first time on a bike. Yeah. Not a runner. Yeah.

So your trajectory has been pretty fast. I didn't realize that, that you really were a pure swimmer until then. Yeah. Yeah, and so then I was trying to run at that time too. And I think like my cardiovascular system, I guess, was probably a little ahead of my bones and all of that from just purely swimming. And so I'd run really hard and then shin stuff one week, ankle stuff the next week. I was just miserable and I was limping around.

This is so familiar. I could have told this exact same story just to slightly down the timeline. Yeah. Yeah. And so then at the time, it was like, I decided I was going to go to University of Utah and do Navy ROTC there, which is just kind of like a military officer pipeline. Originally, I wanted to go to the Naval Academy, but that didn't work out. And so I went out to Utah, absolutely loved it. It was just kind of biking around recreationally, still trying to do a little bit of running.

And then like, fast forward to is the second semester of my freshman year. And I reached out to one guy who I knew it was kind of affiliated with triathlon. I was like, dude, I'm so bored just training by myself. This is miserable. Is there anybody doing anything? Because it was still COVID and everything was super lock. down at the university and I was like I just I just want to go for a run with someone or whatever and he was like oh yeah there's a um in Salt Lake they have a indoor track

that's around a speed skating rink so you can run you know I don't know inside because it's more than 400 meters it's like bigger bigger than a running track they have those in camera too right yeah yeah yeah and a good option for winter yeah it's super cool um and so he was like, yeah, come out to this. There's, you know, some coach leading it and then a swim after. And so I did that. And that's how I got plugged in. I worked with West Johnson up until the end of last year. And so I met him and just, you know, I think I'm fairly introverted around kind of new situations and people I don't know. And so just, you know, I didn't say much and just kind of did the run workout. And then went and swam later. and that was probably my first time in the pool in 10 months,

something like that. And so that felt horrible. But then the West came up to me after and was like, you know, kind of what's your story? What are you looking to do? And at that time, it was still super new. Honestly, I knew triathlon was in the Olympics,

but had zero understanding of any draft legal, whatever. and, you know, my dad was like, oh, you should just stick to like Olympic distance stuff, but I was like, oh, I'm just going to go do some 70.3s and just have fun with it. And so then West was like, oh, you should hop into this. With USAT, the pipeline to get your pro card is, you know, you go to EDR, which is an elite development race. And, you know, if you place on the podium or whatever, you can qualify for your elite license. and then you can go race, you know, Connie Cups

and kind of move up from there. And so I was like, I don't know about that. And it was in, you know, a month, month and a half. You're like, I'll have it as a TT bike. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

But so then West was able to convince me and I went out to Florida and Claremont and somehow got third there. And then everything just kind of fell into place. Yeah. And everything just kind of fell into place from there. And it's, yeah, honestly, just pretty insane. The chips just kind of kept falling right into place.

And, you know, fast forward a little bit. I decided I wasn't going to stick with ROTC. And I was just going to do triathlon basically full-time. And kind of Utah is cool where I can do pretty much all my classes online. And so that really worked or works well with the schedule. and provides a lot of freedom. And so, yeah, fast forward. Everything just kind of kept falling into place.

And then 2022, I went to my first under 23 world champs in Abu Dhabi. And that was pretty sweet. And I got ninth there, which I think was a bit of a breakout. For me, just, you know, for a while, or I had a horrible T2. I'm trying to figure that one out because I keep having horrible T2s. D2, like the last kilometer into T2, that is an art form. Yeah, and that's my thing. It's just the lead into it.

I can put my shoes on and dismount just fine, but it's holding that position. And like in Hittalco, I got. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Hatoco I got. Yeah, exactly. It's terrifying. But so, yeah, I got ninth. And I felt like I was actually in the race for a while running with the guys until some of them just.

through surges and I absolutely blew up the last 2K, but it was sick because I was like, I'm in the race, and I had so much fun. And then, yeah, everything's just kind of continued to fall into place, did my second E23 Worlds last year, and then hopped into a couple World Cups for the first time,

and then kind of continued that trajectory with a lot of World Cups this year. And then I think I'll try and race my first World Series in Hamburg in July. Oh, nice. Nice. Is that going to be an Olympic distance or sprint distance? I think so was a sprint. Sprint. Yeah, I think it's exciting because you're so new to the sport that I feel like the improvement curve is so steep initially. When you're just learning the skills and you're learning even just how to build up your mileage on the run since coming from a swim background.

That's something like you said is really gentle territory when you're trying to not get injured coming from water sports to land. Totally. I think it's amazing how you've done so well in the last four years, and it doesn't stop there. Like the potential kind of is endless. I think also a lot of athletes that are, even your age, start to get burned out of the sport a little bit. And doing it since they were 12 or 13 years old. And like Eric and I, we're starting to get a little tired of the training. But it still seems for you like it's a little bit of a fresh and exciting stimulus.

Every time you go out and ride and run, it's still a relatively new sport to you. So that's exciting for me to hear. I didn't realize it had been such a new sport. I feel like you've got at least 10 years of like growth very steadily, you know, from the time you start training seriously like you did in 2020, 2020, 2021. Yeah. So you like really start to hit some sort of a peak or a plateau or, you know, that the improvement is not.

Yeah. Do you have any, uh, quick? Any desire to do long course after your short course career? since that's kind of where you started with your TT bike? Yeah. Yeah, well, I think honestly, just kind of the way I mapped out my season, I might try and dip my toes into like an Indian Wells this December and maybe play around with it a little bit for the next two years.

I think that a lot of the short course guys are going to do that and then kind of draw back come 26 in once the you know, Olympic qualification stuff starts up again for 28. But like I think you'll see a lot of guys, at least the next two years, start trying to dip their toes into it a little bit. And so I think Indian Wells would be fun, kind of a, you know, if everything goes well this season, I'll do Worlds end of October, and then maybe one more World Cup, and then just kind of all November,

have fun on the TT bike. Yeah. and messed around a little bit. That's a funny phrase. You go so fast. I was in St. George, and I did a relay with two of my friends. Oh, that's right. And they had a TT bike for me, and so I drove up from Tucson, hopped on it, you know, like

two days before messed around with the fit a little bit, and then race, you know, on whatever, the Saturday. And I enjoyed it. It was the first, you know, 40, 50K, it was. super fun and then I just I barely ate anything and kind of paid the price for it once we hit snow canyon and that was a little rough but um it's fun I think it's just different it's the biggest difference from short course is just the feeling I think the amount of training you guys do in the ITU circuit is the same or more as a lot of 70.3 guys are doing so this kind of jumping over and even the T100

series like that 100k distance is I think is the super sweet spot where you couldn't you could jump in without changing your training too much. It's just a matter of adapting to the bike and and fueling properly, which is just discipline and practice. I think adapting your brain too because you're so programmed, especially with the sprint distance, like, got to close this gap now, got this now, this, you know, and 70.3 is just you slow all that down by like 10x. Like, I have to close this gap now, which means in the next 10 minutes, over the course of the next 10 minutes, I'm going to shut down this 400 meter gap and I need to remember to eat. And I feel like the only thing that some people coming over from short course struggle with is just it can be legitimately boring.

Yeah. You like to get to the 80K mark on the bike and you're kind of like, man, I say, I can keep doing this, but wow, I'm kind of over it and I still have to do a half marathon and just like processing that and the patience aspect. Yeah, it can take a couple races to really love it. But I think that as long as your focus stays on LA and these other things are kind of for fun and fitness building and for post-L.A., it's we're here as a resource, We can answer any questions.

Yeah, certainly no pressure to do anything long from us. We're stoked on what you got going on U-23 and can't wait. Yeah, Indian Wells is a good race, though. I think that's one of my favorite, 70.3. That one's legitimately fun. I figure it'll be kind of gentle this year as well with like 70.3 worlds being, you know, a week or so later in New Zealand that I doubt there's going to be a whole lot of people there. I feel like that'd be a solid, solid intro.

just, and then I can take an off season after, and I'd much rather just take my off season in December, and I think that works a little better with the holidays, then taking it in November and then trying to get back into some stuff in December, you know, but then you have holidays and I just, you know, I like to, I like to ski, and so I'd rather just be skiing in December instead of trying to, like, build some bike fitness or whatever. It's like the lining up of like finishing the season, getting good snow, being in the right place. Oh, it's so tough. We didn't get it. We didn't nail it last year. I'm sad to say, but fingers crossed me. It's winter. You're honestly like a little mini Eric. I think you should

come to Ben and we can ski. Don't come to train for triathlon. Just come ski with us. You can come for anything you want. We'll hang out. Yeah, that would be great. Well, we don't want to take too much of your time, but do you have any any other questions that we're burning, Eric? No. No, I think I think we hit everything. We'd love to have you back on again. We'll do like, well, I mean, we're going to be sharing your journey as much as we can. But the biggest thing that I wanted to take away from this is just John's on the pathway to you 23 worlds.

Make sure between now and when that happens, you get a world trath on account so you can watch it live because it'll be sick. Yeah, the coverage is so good for all these races. And especially if you're in Hamburg, you can watch the whole thing. If you're doing Hamburg, tune in for that because you'd be able to watch that. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Awesome. Thanks, man. really appreciate it. Oh, yeah. Thanks for having me on. It's been fun to chat and learn about your story. And yeah, we didn't even know the pathway you had to get to this point. So that was cool.

Yeah, we could talk for like two hours. Yeah, we can definitely talk to you. Maybe it'll let in the podcast and we'll keep talking for two hours. Nice. I'm just kidding. Okay, well, I hope you get settled into your new zone that you're in for training. Thank you. Reach out if you need anything, but we're always smiling.

That sounds good. Good luck. What is Alcatraz is in like 10 days or San Francisco? Yeah, that's my next. T-100 San Francisco. T-100 San Francisco off the boat. Yeah, that's my next thing. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, it looks interesting, but I'll definitely be following along. All right, cool. That was our chat was John. We're going to lead back into our normal format with questions from the listeners, but that was a fun little segment.

and we're going to do hopefully more of those throughout the year. So thanks for listening. Loved it. Okay, last question here is from Jordan. Hello, Paula, Eric, and Nick. This question is for Paula. I was wondering if you could talk about the filming process of the Nike Snow Day commercial you posted on Instagram.

I remember when this commercial came out back in 2015, but have to admit that I did not remember you being on Team Gronk. How did your participation come about and how would you rate the whole process compared to your other commercial experiences. Thanks, Jordan. So can you give a little more background on this? I think we've mentioned it once or twice,

but it's such a cool little thing. If people don't know, you can just YouTube Nike Snow Day commercial, and it'll come up. This is in 2015, 2015, summer of 2015 is when we filmed it. I was 2011, or no, 2010, I think I signed with Nike. And they were probably to this day still my biggest sponsor. and such a cool company to be a part of because they're this monstrosity shoe brand. And this was in the days before super shoes and everything.

But the support was just crazy. And I'm still good friends with the athlete manager at the time, Matt. And so 2012 Olympics, Nike stuck with me after that, even though I was struggling and injured and all of that. 2015 at the Pan Am Games, I was still this pre-Madonna teenager triathlon. is all that matters to me athlete. And I remember in the village Matt came up to me and he said, we're filming this commercial. Can you come be a part of it? And it was like very short notice. And I was like kind of rolling my eyes like, it's going to interrupt my training. Oh, wow. Really? Kind of pushing back. Yeah. I was like, okay, fine, I'll do it. And he told me that

Jeannie Bouchard, who's a superstar Canadian tennis player, was going to be there. And I was going to be there. and Stephen Stamco, who's a hockey player. Like, he was telling me names that I could, I was like, wow, that's actually really cool. I really want to meet those people. Okay, I'll come. So I flew to L.A. Shortly, maybe straight from the Pan Am games, actually. And at this point, I'd kind of become this spoiled kid who was used to the Nike treatment,

like super nice hotels, new outfits all the time. It's ruined me for life, basically, because I'm just knob now about hotels. about hotels and flying and all the treatment that they gave me that was so over the top. But yeah, we got fully outfitted, full makeup hair, the whole thing, all the Nike outdoor winter stuff that I don't know if they were advertising one specific thing or just like an advertisement for Nike being cool and look at all these cool athletes that are associated with Nike. So yeah, it was gronk and like all these famous football players and for full transatlantic. We were not all there at the same time. I was there with maybe four or five other athletes filming our section, and then they had doubles of everyone. So that, like, walking from behind, there's a scene where you can see me, but it's not me.

Oh, wow. There at the same time as other people. So it was a very drawn-out production schedule where I wasn't there with all these people. So I actually never met Gronk or some of the other super famous people that were in the commercial. But the set was insane. It was fake snow, so it looked real. But it was like in this giant warehouse that they probably used to film big movies and stuff. And it was just this winter wonderland, but hot because it was the middle of summer in L.A.

And yeah, that's kind of all I remember about it. This was before the days of when I was with Eric and was used to cameras. And so it all seemed like a huge production to me. I mean, it was. But I was not used to being on camera like that. yeah it was a super cool thing i don't think i realized at the time just like everything in my day back when i was a teenager everything i was doing was so cool i didn't even appreciate it in the moment and now 10 years i look back the commercials still on the internet and it's one of the coolest

things i was ever a part of but at the time i was just like when's the next race all i want to do is win races so it just that's a good reminder to snap back into like even now when i'm winning races. Ten years from now, I'm going to wish I was back in this time winning races. So just to live in the moment a little bit. And that was something I struggled with as a teenager who was, you know, winning huge races and trying to go to the Olympics and had these big goals and all these things. Social media was not a big thing yet. So it was less of a focus. But stuff like that, I wish I had kind of taken in a little more versus just jacking a box. But regardless, it still lives on. and I'm in the commercial.

And it's just a short clip of me, but I am in it. And it's super cool to be not only like asked to do that, but like a good enough athlete to be in the Nike family and like part of a production like that. So there's my long-winded explanation of that whole thing. I was going to say that we kind of had this moment while we were watching, I can't remember what swimming like world championships or something. And there was, you know, like a 16-year-old, 17-year-old.

It's summer Macintosh. Everyone should know who she is, but they probably don't yet. Okay. So we were watching and, you know, she had just smashed everybody and was kind of doing the, yeah, it wasn't quite the best race, you know, but I think I got a lot to work on and the thing. But I'm just grateful to be out here with all these different people and, you know, world championships coming up. Olympics coming up. And, you know, and we were kind of like, do you think she gets it? Do you think she like fully, truly, deeply grasps?

She is the fastest in the entire world. You know, I feel like it's taken me racing in China and racing in Slovakia and all over the place and then like going through really hard times being injured and, you know, Paula, the same thing, even more extreme to go, wow. If winning a race, especially one of any sort of international caliber, just takes so much to go right and is so crazy to really think about. Yeah, I think watching summer, not that I was anywhere in Summer's League of talent, but. But watching her smash these world records and beat the field by 20 seconds in a 400 a.m. She's going into the Olympics is the hands-down favorite to win a gold medal for Canada in multiple events. She's 17. So cool to watch her swim. She's got a beautiful stroke. And I could see a little bit of my mental state in her, in her post-race interviews, where, yeah, very self-critical.

I wish that I went faster. Very shy, but the best in the entire world, and she's so young. And I just hope that she can appreciate that a little bit and how amazing she is now, because when I was in that state, I went through a lot of injuries, and it took 10 years to realize how amazing it was that I was winning races. So, yeah, it's really tough for young athletes where all they know is winning. She grew up as this age group or a young. young swimmer, winning, winning, winning, winning, it just becomes the normal.

Even when you get to that stage, it's still like, well, this is normal, I'm still winning, but it's on the Olympic level now. So, I don't know, she's a really smart girl and she has good support in her coach and her team and her family and everything. But it's, it is interesting to watch now that I'm so far removed from those days that it does become this thing that you take for granted a little bit when really it's a huge. Because you could just have no, you just have no idea yet. Like it's, it's not any fault. You don't know what the bad times are like.

Yeah, like you got to go through some shit to like really, really appreciate that on some level. Anyway, that's a good, that's a good sort of, not that it's the same situation, but a good observation of what it's like as a young athlete to be that good. How did back back to the Nike commercial thing? How did that come back? Did the algorithm all of a sudden spit that back to the front? Like, I feel like all of a sudden multiple people have sent it to us. I saw it shared on Instagram. Yeah, I think someone posted, like an account on Instagram posted,

let me remind you guys of the best commercial of all time. Right, right. And so it was a reel with like a clip from the commercial and I reposted that. So that's why some people have seen it. Got it. Okay. And if you're a sports fan, it maybe truly is the greatest commercial of all time. There's so many different people.

Yeah. It is neat. Like, what is the point of this? I don't know, but look at everybody. It's brand coolness. It's brand awareness. It was advertising nothing except the coolness of it. Is that gone now that we have like Facebook ads and so much data to put behind things?

I feel like I see less and less. Oh, this was just cool. And the end. I don't know. This wasn't product specific. Commercials are definitely less important now than they used to be, I'd say. How often do you guys see a commercial though? like I only really watch YouTube and I have the YouTube premium so I don't see the commercials on

there so I don't even know what commercials are anymore. Yeah, it's funny. I only watch them if I'm like in a hotel room and I just have the TV on. That's true. And they're not commercial. This is like Super Bowl level. Right. Right. Exactly. That's what I'm thinking. Like Super Bowl still does, they'll still brands will still do like brand awareness commercials. For the product specific. I guess that's it. Yeah. That's the category that this is in. And maybe nowadays that has been, place has been taken a little bit by just long-form content on YouTube or something like that. That's more story-driven. It's funny, though, because this whole commercial is a story packed into a minute.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, just like it's not a story about gronk, you know, or it's not a cool story of a fairy situation, very tale situation. Yeah. So I have something that is very apropos, what you were just saying about appreciating things from the past and trying to live in the moment for them. And this is, I want to read, this is hopefully heartwarming. I want to read the first message I ever sent Eric, which I said I would read on the podcast this week. Oh, man. A lot of scrolling. Teer jerker. Here we go. I found it. Yeah. Well. So this was many years ago, everybody. Hey, Eric, I'm a triathlete and love the show. I'm referring to the YouTube show, obviously, because there

was no podcast yet. Been racing for a bit now with my sights on 70.3 world championships. Age group, of course. Professionally, I write and produce music in Los Angeles for recording artists, but I used to do quite a bit of composition work for film, TV, and commercials before I decided to get more into the pop music side of things. I love, love, love the show and wanted to offer whatever I can to help with anything musical. I have a wide range of abilities under the musical umbrella, so if there's anything you can think of that I can help with, I'm down. I'd love to do it free of charge if I have the time and don't really even need credit if that makes things easier. let me know how I can help. Love the new branding, by the way. Keep it up.

So fun. That is really fun. And now, how, how, how, how, how, what, do you have the date on that? Yeah, it was May 21st, 2020. And here we are in 2024 and you just got your spot for 70.3 worlds. Yep. That's amazing. Well, I mean, if you want to be part of, um, our team here, that this is, this is the level of direct message. This is how hard. You need to slide into my DMs. Offer free things. Yeah. Say you like music in videos. Also, this was like May of 2020 was definitely still on the climb, right?

It was still things were, it was earlier on. Yeah. Yeah, we don't reply to DMs anymore. That's not true. That is not true. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. I don't.

I don't actually know. So we have an intern who's working with us right now. And she's the one who is, I've got it up to speed and she's now writing our newsletters for us. So those awesome TTL bulletins that say, here's what happened on the podcast, here's what the Devo team did. Here's, you know, the YouTube. She's doing those. And I can't remember how she reached out to us. If that was an email.

It was on the TTL podcast forum. That's a guaranteed way to get a hold of me because I read every single one of those. Yeah. So if you want to offer up, you know, that kind of thing, that's not an open call. But we do read everything that comes in. just sometimes Instagram now these days has like this hidden messages and then so many different like little buckets inside of the messaging app where things can go and just yeah they don't just show you and they just go to die no and sometimes you just like you want to sort by unread and it

says you have no unread messages and that is not always true no they're like me it's time to populate or like I don't know it's very strange hidden requests hidden it's just yeah anyway we that's how we got our TTL logo. Ralph from Foreign Rider reached out via Instagram direct message. Nick, some good stuff does come of it. Man, that's a journey. What a journey it's been, man. Yeah, what a journey. And he's even qualified for 70.3 worlds, wow.

Can you believe that? I guess we can just be done here because we've done everything we set out to do. That's it, guys. We're shutting it down. No, we're not. We're never shutting it down. That's all we got, yeah? Yeah, we got to get our day started. Let's go get some training.

Earliest podcast recording we've ever done. And let's say this. Let's never do earlier than this. Yeah. Let's make this the record. Yeah, never earlier than seven. Monday afternoons is we're back to that. We've got to go back to that.

Yeah, love it. Yeah, love it. All right, thanks for listening to everybody. We'll talk to next week. Bye. Bye.