That Triathlon Life Podcast - Episode 150! That Triathlon Life Podcast

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Welcome to our 150th episode of That Triathlon Life! We did things a little differently this time to celebrate this milestone. We filmed the entire episode and brought you along for the ride. Watch it on YouTubeWe took it up a notch by calling listeners who shared their phone numbers with us and had them ask their questions live on the show. Thank you to all of our amazing listeners and supporters for helping us reach this milestone—we couldn’t have done it without you!You can become a podcast supporter as well as submit questions for the podcast at ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

What's up everybody? Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Lauggestrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. And you may be watching this or you may be listening to this because this is our 150th episode. And we are going all out and we're doing a video episode along with our traditional podcast thing. So I'm a professional triathlete.

Paul is a professional trathlet. Nick is a professional musician, a co-host of our podcast, great friend. And he came all the way here. He detoured home from Christmas with his family to come record this podcast with us. So we're freaking psyched. We do this pretty much once a year. Yeah, it seems like it.

This is the frequency. Yeah, well, 52 weeks in a year. So here we are. Yeah. We have our multi-million dollar camera set up here. You can't see it, but these are state-of-the-art best you can buy, generously donated by the podcast supporters.

Just almost like as high of a production as Beast Games. Oh my gosh. That is such a can of worms. Paula and Eric showed me this new show, which is basically like Squid Games, but a reality show in real life with these contestants, right? Yeah, Mr. Bees put it on. Who's the most famous person on YouTube? Other than us, of course. And he teamed up with Amazon to do this game show, which is outrageous.

The winner gets $5 million. The desperation, the mind games, that's psychology of it is just insane to watch. It's a little bit sickening. It is sickening. It was really sickening for me. Okay, let's not talk too much about that. Anyway, here we are. We are, would you call this your off-season still?

Yeah, it's off-season until we race, right? Is that right? Wait, that's how you define off-season? I don't know. I think we could potentially break it into like off-season and then pre-season training and then in-season is when you race first, I would think. But who really cares what it's called? Yeah.

Well, is there a change in mindset, though, when you approach like a run or a swim or a bike of like, I am doing this for the race versus like, nope, doing this because it's fun and I just want to be outdoors right now. Yeah, I'm still a little bit in that phase. And I don't want to get a schedule. I don't want to be on the thing where I have to do a thing, but I'm happy to do two exercises a day. That's the phase I'm in.

Do you think is the intensity always less in this period than it is during the season? Yeah, but not because I necessarily want that to be the case, but I feel like I'm being bad if I, like, go too hard at this time of year, you know? I see. It's all about, at least right now, for, a little bit chilling a bit. Yeah, yeah. I'm in a slightly different spot because I'm trying to do an early season 50K,

so I'm a little bit more on a schedule. But just by virtue of only training for an event that has just running in it, it's still like overall a little bit chill relative to normal trathon in season training. Are you doing any swimming and biking? Yeah, I'm doing biking. No swimming. Pretty much no swimming. My goal mentally is to go to the pool with Paula like two to three times a week

and anything else that comes up that needs to be handled, expressed in and over the pool right now. And how does that feel for you physically and how does that feel for you, like, emotional? Like, Paul was saying, she feels bad right now going too hard. Is there some part of you that's like, oh, you should be swimming,

but I'm telling myself I'm prioritizing something else? Yeah, for sure. I do want to go swimming. It always sounds okay, but also jumping into a cool pool sounds like, it's not too hard to talk myself out of it when I have anything else to do. Speaking of swimming, last year we got donuts for our 100th episode.

And at the last second, I thought I needed to go get treats for this episode. I went to Sparrow and I was crossing my fingers that they're cookies, which they make a different design every a couple days. I was hoping it would be applicable to us somehow. And they happen to be sea creatures. We've got penguins. We've got whales and we've got lifesavers devices. And Nick said it actually does apply to the podcast because we are so.

rough on swimming on this podcast. We get so many swimming questions too. So how is it applicable, Nick? Well, I don't know. Sometimes you feel like a fast agile penguin in the water. Sometimes you feel maybe more floaty at peace like a whale. And then other days you feel like you need a lifesaver in the water. Yeah, exactly. Can I have one now? Yeah, can we? They wouldn't let me eat them before. Which flavor do you want? I'm feeling like a whale lately. So let's add to it. Physically. Let's carry that on. Wow, the whale has earmuffs. That's adorable. I guess it gets cold. I'm going to do the penguin to hopefully absorb some of its swim properties.

Okay. Eric, what about you? Yeah, I'm going to join you in a penguin. I'm going to join you in the pen. What about you, Flynn? Lifesaver boy? We got Flynn just off camera here. He's so cute.

He's dangerously close to one of our camera setups that is, despite what I said, not a multi-million dollar sturdy setup. If Nick cuts out, you know why. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, for this podcast, we're doing a different format. We did it last year for a hundredth episode, which you probably don't remember. It's been a long time. But we are going to call listeners live. They don't know we're calling them, although they did give us their phone number.

So on Instagram yesterday, I put up a call out if you want us to potentially call you, put in your phone number. We have hundreds of numbers. We're going to randomly select them. but we do have a couple of people who we know that we're going to call as a special surprise. Yeah, a couple of people sold us some crisp $100 bills, so we got to call them first. We do take bribes here.

So do people on Beast games. Yeah, oh my gosh. They really do. Oh, God. Okay, I think we should just get right to it because that's the fun part. So we're going to call random people. They don't know we're calling.

They better have a question for us or else we're hanging up on them and moving on. Good. I like that. Because we're on a bit of a time. If you get a couple sentences into your life story, we might be going through some spotty reception. Yeah, exactly.

Okay, so this is our first caller here, giving her a ring. Hello? Hello, Jackie Herring. This is Nick Goulson from That Triathlon Live podcast. How are you doing? Nick, I saw your name on my phone and I thought, why are you calling me? Are you dead? Is something wrong?

Yeah, we're actually stuck on the side of I-85 and we need to pick up immediately. Can you come down from Wisconsin and save us? Oh, I'd love to do anything to go back if you're in warm weather. No, we're not. I got you in the van here with my kids. Oh, nice. Nice. Well, you are on the TTL podcast right now.

So your kids are going to be a part of history here. This is our 150th episode. It's not live, Jackie. So if you don't want to be on it, say now. No, no, you're on it. You're on it. No, it's fine. It might be poor quality in the van here.

Maybe I should get inside the house. No, no, it's all good. It sounds great. Say hi, kids. Hi. Hi, Hunter. Hi, Skyler. Amazing.

Perfect. Okay. Well, since there are the kids in the car, we'll allow two questions. One from you and one from the kids. So we're hoping you ask us a question. That's the format here. I know it's kind of strange. Okay, yes.

I have a question right now that's right on my mind. What is, for each of you, the number one, first race that pops in your head that you're excited to possibly do for 2025. Good question. My first thing that pops into my head is St. George 70.3 because it's potentially the last year and it's my favorite Iron Man event. Yeah, that's good. Eric. The first thing that popped in my head was UTMB, which is like a lot of stuff to qualify for. But that's the first thing that popped in my head. It's got to be the goal then. I have to admit the first thing for me is this the San Diego International Triathlon that I do.

It's a little sprint, but it's the one I get most excited about because I can just go hard the whole time and not blow up, not worry and just have a fun time. Even before Iron Man, Wisconsin in September, that's what kind of gets me going. What about you, Jackie? I guess probably Kona, Iron Man. Oh, yeah. Let's go. What's that? Oh, yeah, baby.

But I got to qualify first, of course. But yes, that will be the... Yeah, I'll feel you. Oh, you will qualify, Jackie. Guarante. We got one more question, yeah? Yeah, one more question from the kids. Kids, you got anything?

Do you got any questions? This is Paula and Eric and their friend, Nick. Do you have any question at all you can think of for them? Anything, triathlon? Even not. Homework question that you need help with? We should ask if they have a question for Lionel Sanders. Maybe they have.

Maybe they, yeah, that's right. That's fine. Nope, I think, I don't think we have any, we don't have any questions from the kid audience. All right. I'll have this was separately. That is a okay. I have a question for them. Do they ever, do they ever want to do a triathlon after watching their mom race?

Skyler? I don't know. Good answer. Hunter? Hunter, what about you? Okay, good. Wow. There we go.

That's awesome. Watch out, world. Wow, very nice. Very quick story. She declared last night he was training for a marathon and then ran laps around the inside of our house a mile and a quarter as his first training run for a marathon. Wow. Going to be the youngest person ever to do a marathon. Oh, yeah, I don't think we're allowing it.

No. Maybe a 5K, yeah. I think 5K will feel plenty long. That's my prediction. Yeah, I'd say. Well, congrats on the episode. guys, good job. Yeah, thanks for picking up and good to chat with you. Say how

to Mark. Yep. We'll do. Talk to you later. See ya. Bye. All right, bye. Fun fact about Jackie is that she has no problems telling me very frequently that she does not listen to the podcast. Did we introduce Jackie as second in the Iron Man Pro series last year? We did not. We did not. We did not. Fun fact.

Jackie Herring is a good friend of ours. We have stayed with her many times in races and she is one of the top full distance athletes in the world. And middle distance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. And she came to her wedding. Good friend. Yeah. Cute kids. Great kids. Next caller. Let's go.

Next caller. Hello? Hi. Is this Hannah? Who's this? This is Nick from That Triathlon Life podcast. Welcome to the show. Oh my God.

Hi, Hannah. You're kidding me. I'm dying. We are not kidding. Hi, Hannah. I noticed the 617 area code and I couldn't resist because I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I got that Boston love inside of me. I'm flabbergasted right now.

I'm so happy. This is so cool. I almost didn't answer it because it's a Garden City, New York. I know. I know. F that guy. That guy sucks. Yeah.

Go socks. Okay. So, Hannah, can you think of a question that you would like for us to answer on our 150th podcast here? How are you guys doing? You can edit that part out. We choose what gets edited. Hold on.

No, we're doing good. Nick's here live in person with Eric and I and Ben, so we've had a fun couple days. Yeah, I was like, wait a second, I know this voice. What have been some of the primary influences in the different stages of your life, primarily Traswan, because it's dethras on my podcast and people want to know about that, but also just I was listening to your other podcast today about the mental fortitude and I think the passion that keeps you in doing what you're doing like has to be combined with that fortitude for you to succeed right?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm seriously. What keeps you driven? What makes you tick? Even that passion needs to kind of be like you have to resubscribe to it sometimes because it's hard. Traathlon is not this self-sustaining thing. It's like you really

have to put yourself into it over and over again. Yeah. Yeah. I guess for me, it's very goal-driven. I always have to have a goal on the horizon. Ideally, something that's within the next eight weeks, I would say, is kind of like the limit of time, how far away something can be for me to

really take it seriously and then backing up and kind of I can come back to it every day as I decide when to get on the bike and how hard I'm going to go and everything. There's got to be something that's pretty imminent. Yeah, I think for me it's not necessarily a positive thing, but I feel like my identity is wrapped up in being a triathlet. So to let go of it or to think about stopping feels like losing this big part of me and just like how people know me. So as I get closer to retirement, which is maybe five years, maybe less, I'm not sure. I think I need to work

on not identifying myself solely as someone who race to swim bike run, because we can't do that forever, especially professionally. So I don't know. It's kind of tough. But whenever I don't do the sport, if I take a break, I always want to come back and train and I get excited about the next race that's coming up. So even though I dread it sometimes and I don't love it every single day, some part of me needs it. So that's kind of what keeps me going every day even on the tougher days. Paula, do you feel like the most evolved like Nirvana version of yourself does triathlon but does not feel that attachment that you have towards it? Yeah, but I think every pro athlete feels a bit like this. Especially people that have done it since they were little.

It's like I've never really had a real job and I've never, I went to school, but that was 10 years ago now. So I just feel like it's such a big part of me. And as we've built TTL, I think there's other outlets, which is cool that we've created for ourselves. but still the racing is the biggest part of it. I think everyone, even people who are not even athletes, have this about something. Yeah, yeah. You, for me, it's music.

For me, it's like, or for someone else, it's like I was always the guy who could show up early with the water for the event. I don't know, that's a stupid one. Being a parent. Yeah, being a parent. Something we're just like, this is who I am. And to detach yourself from that is,

it's like if you feel like you lose your identity a little bit. Totally. I may have totally skewed the point of this question, but that's how I feel. Oh, no, next question I have is, and I don't know if you can share this or not, but have you thought about, I'm sure you have, what can you share of what you've envisioned for yourself in the next post-retirement, opening a bike shop, or going to med school, or what have you? Oh, that's a good question. I think as TTL is grown, Eric and I both see ourselves putting more love and time and effort into that when we retire and it is naturally trending that way anyway. I could see myself having kids. I don't see myself going to med school because it's just such a big time before you are actually working as a doctor.

So I feel like that was a dream I had back when I was like 20. And not that it's completely impossible, but it just doesn't sound as appealing to. me anymore. What about you, Eric? Filmmaking. Yeah. I don't really ever want to be fully retired, so I think we'll both be going out and doing exercising and probably continuing to hopefully tell stories about what that means further into life. But I really do want to make sure that TTL can be everything that it, you know, reach its potential and grow that into a true company that is not, you know, reliant on Paul

and I being sponsored, to keep it going. Like, it's fully, self-sustaining, and then I also, yeah, completely want to take a crack at being a filmmaker and, you know, at whatever capacity that looks like. Yeah. That's amazing. Awesome. And what are you, Nick? I'm not retiring ever.

I want to race until I'm 70. I want to be the only guy left in the age group that gets up on that first place. In Topau, at the 70.3 Worlds, they had all the age group awards. And they do the pros last, so we watch all of them, which is actually extremely fun. They had like an 80 plus guy that finished the race. Standing ovation. Yeah. He was out there in the heat, too.

That's amazing. That's true. I feel like I could totally see at least you, Nick, being the 96-year-old doing it, and then Paula and Eric being like, monies are good. But you'll be there. Our bodies are not going to make it that long. There's a lot of pounding on them. Yeah.

Cool. Well, thank you, Hannah. We don't want to keep you too much longer, but we really appreciate you picking up and having some great questions for us and for listening to the podcast. I've been a total honor. So I am just, I think I'm going to go off. I'm going to bathe on his whip ride.

And I'm just like, yeah, so grateful for everything you guys have done other than being like, first of all, thanks for being two ginger triathletes. I feel like I'm in a, you know, we're a very small percentage of this world. Oh, you're a redhead too. Nice. Yeah. I've met you once or twice at like St. Anthony's. Okay. Yeah, nice.

There's a lot of us that follow you, so I understand. All right, stay strong and wear your sunscreen. Yeah. Okay, we'll do. Have a good ride. See you later. Thank you. Bye.

Bye. Fun. Fun. I guess it's true that there's not that many redheads in the world, and you guys are two together in a very prominent position of sport. I don't see it as a redhead. I don't fully claim redhead. I think some redheads feel that I'm one of them.

Yeah. And my mom's very. very redhead and like my beard is red. So I don't know if that counts, but yeah, I don't think it's a redhead. I'm pretty blonde. Is ginger different? First of all, is that a derogatory term? It always feels a little ugly to say it. I wouldn't just like necessarily call someone that.

But I guess if you are one, you can, I don't know. A ginger? One to another. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, ginger's a pretty color, I think. Sure. Yeah. I mean, Eric thinks so too, clearly. But I think it's also like you, in grade school. That was a mean thing. Yeah, it's a mean thing. Right. I never got made fun of for having red hair though.

No. Really? No. Huh. You know something I don't think I really ever knew is, did you go through normal school? Yes. Because, like, Kathleen, for example, with tennis, they took her out of school all the time for tennis tournaments and stuff. Oh, yeah.

Did you have anything like that? No, I went to St. Francis Xavier in Edmonton. It's a sport academy school, but it's soccer and hockey focused. So the kids in the sport academies would do half a day school, half a day sports. And I just did a full day of school, but it was a very understanding. school with having to leave for competitions and stuff. But I really didn't dive deep into like racing internationally and competing until post high school. So it wasn't a big problem.

It was a problem for college though, right? Like it took you a long time. What was it like 10 years or something? Well, the thing is I was doing less than a full course load every semester. And then around the Olympics in 2012, I took like a year or two off. So yeah, it took me a while. But I did get my degree. You did get it.

Yeah. Good for you. All right. Should we do next caller? Next caller. Hello. Hey, this is Nick from That Triathlon Live podcast. Is this Adrian?

Hi, it's Adrian. Hi, Adrian. First of all, happy birthday. We've heard it's your birthday. Thank you so much. It is my birthday. Hi, Adrian. I'm here too.

I'm Paula and Eric's here as well. Hi, Paula. Hi, Eric. We called you not just because you're Canadian, but also my sister's name is Adrian, spelled the same way. And it's your birthday and your, and your, are you on the West Coast?

Two-f-0. Yeah, I'm in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. No, way. Oh, I love Nanaimo. That's close to my sister. That's awesome. That's really cool. Oh, that's awesome.

Okay. Adrian, we were hoping that you had a question for us to answer on the podcast. Okay, I do have a question. I'm wondering, do you, sorry, I'm just taking my girls to swimming lessons here. No, that's okay. If you ever partake in any activities that would mark your birth years. So last year I turned 42 and I ran 42 kilometers. Today I swam 4,300 meters at the pool to mark my 43rd.

So my question is, do you ever partake in anything that would mark your birthday? Yeah. The only time I do that is that swimming, where the person who makes up our swimstats, he's a friend of ours, will usually do like 35 times 100 or, you know, your birth age times a certain distance. I think it would be cool to run like 36K on my next birthday. That's a long way. That's challenging. That is.

I think you can do it, for sure. I love the idea of it, though. We just got to come up with some more fun ideas. What do you think, Nick? Yeah, I think about this every year. And then I'm just like, I'm trying to do the math in my head of like, okay, I can't run 35 kilometers. That's way too much. I swim 3.5K?

I'm like, wait, I'm not swimming on my birthday. Yeah, right. So I kind of run out of things a little bit kind of quickly. Yeah, super fun though. How old are your girls? They're going to swimming right now. Yeah, I've got one who's nine, and this is actually her first day of swim club. Wow.

And one who's six, yeah. Oh, that's awesome. I started a swim club when I was nine as well, so it's a good age. Oh, nice. Yeah, she's hopefully into it. she seems to be pretty excited. Oh, that's good. Well, thanks for answering amidst the chaos.

I know it was a little bit of a random call, but we appreciate it. And thank you for listening to the podcast. Awesome. Thank you so much. It's good to hear from you guys. You too. Bye-bye.

Thanks, Adrienne. Okay, have a good day. My parents, we hiked a lot as a kid, but it made me dislike hiking. And even to this day, I'll trail run, but hiking, I'm just like, that's boring and long. and I can't get my head around it.

Yeah. I don't know. I feel like your parents probably really liked hiking and they might have been the type of parents were like, well, we're going to continue doing things in our life that we like. Kid might just have to buckle up for that, but then I assume they also allowed you to self-chose some sports. Play video games.

Well, the funny thing about hiking is when you're a little kid, you don't appreciate beautiful things as much. Right, that is the problem. And same with me when we were kids, didn't like hiking. It was just hard and slow and boring. And now that I'm older and I think, wow, that is so gorgeous. Cool that I got here with my own feet.

that's a different experience. But there are some kids who love it. I love going to hiking. They're like exploring or maybe just, you know, looking for sticks or I don't know what it is. That's a low bar. Maybe it's the word. Maybe it's the act of hiking versus like, we're going to go to the woods. But I can remember so distinctly my mom taking us to Jasper Place Pool in Eminton, me, my brother and my sister.

I was nine or ten. And it was like the first day for the Keanu Swim Club, not tryouts, but like see if you want to be a swimmer, you know. And I liked it. I stuck with it. And my sister and brother hated it. It lasted a week and didn't do it. And there was no pressure from my mom, obviously. So it's like it's innate for some people.

Yeah, I mean, I didn't love swimming. And it's the same way I feel about it now. But I like the challenge of it. And ultimately I ended up making my friends there. So it was like my social love. That's right. I think, Eric, you had mentioned that too, how that was a part of the, like, you threatened to yourself to quit swimming a couple times.

And you even told your parents. They're like, yeah, let's just finish the week. Yeah, they were like, we've paid dudes. for July, so if you want to quit on August 1st, that's fine. And I never made it more than a couple days till I saw my friends there and it was fun and I had that rush of getting better at swimming a 50 freestyle or whatever. Can you guys think of something that would have helped you when you were kids to make sure, or that did help you to make sure that you had like a healthy desire for swimming specifically. Because I think biking and running are a little easier to find that far naturally.

Well, I think the thing about swimming is that when you start when you're nine, every time you go to a swim meet, you're getting best times. Like you're just getting better and better and better and better and it's like positive feedback every time you race. And then you plateau a little bit when you're a teenager, when you're getting into university, and it's taking off a tenth of a second is like a huge deal, you know? And then it becomes a little bit more like a grind and less fun.

So I don't know. I still enjoyed it throughout because of friends, but I think the natural getting better just because you're getting bigger and because you're doing the activity more and stronger. Yeah, it's not just with swimming. that happens across a lot of sports, I bet. Yeah, Eric, do you have any suggestions for parents who want to have their kids

be into swimming? Don't do it. Yeah, no, I don't know. Make sure they get their driver's license as soon as they can. Yeah, I think just with any sport and just what I was thinking is we were getting into this was I've heard parents say just exposing your kids to a lot of things. Like Paula's mom took her to swim practice. My parents took me and put me in swim lessons because we had a family boat and I kind of liked

it. And so they let me keep going. But they also took me to a soccer practice, took me to a tee ball practice. I think I made it like three tea ball practices, just exposing to a whole bunch of things. And I think some kids, a kid is just going to naturally like a thing probably and you let them roll with it. Yeah. Let's do another call. Great.

Oh, Dennis Kim. You are on the 150th episode of that Triathlon Live podcast. How does it feel? You asked for it. You asked for it. That was a joke. No, we take jokes very seriously here on the podcast. It's not that much pressure because we can...

I've got a meeting in like six minutes. Well, you got to make it count then, okay, Dennis? I know. So what do you have for us, Dennis? Do you want... Just a question. Like a serious question. It doesn't have to be serious.

But it could be. Well, I was thinking, because you guys have really interesting. in particular, Eric and Paula, like being around national team athletes in current and former lives. Like just, was there a story or was there kind of a lesson that somebody passed on to you of like, well, you kind of took that and like that was really useful? like a good sound bite that you kind of heard. Yeah, I think growing up in the national team environment as a junior taught me more than I even realized because I was around the senior athletes at every single race

like Simon Whitfield, Lauren Groves, Kathy Trombley, Christian Sweetland, all these people I looked up to. And we were staying in the same hotel, we were eating dinners together, and I kind of got a firsthand view as a 13, 14, 15-year-old of what it looks like to do this full on and to be the best of something. So being a junior was kind of like the learning informative years, I guess, that allowed me to kind of keep doing it and be good at it and want to be them ultimately. Like it was a bit of, wow, that's so cool, I want to be as fast as them someday and race the races they're doing.

And then even to this day, when I go to the national team stuff for cycling, it's the same kind of feel where these athletes are not making a ton of money. not like they're doing it because it's making them rich. They're doing it because they have these big goals of going to the Olympics, making national teams representing Canada. It's a completely different feel than going to a professional Ironman race, I think. And I like it a lot. It's really cool.

How about you, I don't know. It's tough. I don't feel like I was a master of the national team environment. I really wasn't inside of what I would call a national team. I was trained with Paula Sousa and he had a group that was funded by USA triathlon but operated a little bit autonomously. The thing that I guess I just formulated while listening to Paula was that if you're in that sort of position, chasing after the Olympics, chasing after whatever it is, high performance, like really remembering what you were in it for, what your goals are and being able to make some decisions on your own, even if someone who is apparently in a leadership position tells you this is the best thing, have some people in your corner, like check in with yourself, personally take a step back and go, does that fit into my goals? Does that feel right? And you know, you treat that as information rather than like the law. Yeah. National teams are crazy. Dennis, we have the book that you gave us for Christmas right in front of us. It's beautiful.

It's actually a centerpiece in our set right now. Yeah, he's we're videoing this live. So thank you. Nice one. Well, it's an interesting, like I love Rick Rubin and even this probably crosses into your world Nick too. But he's just, because the guy, who doesn't actually, he doesn't read music, he doesn't play the instruments, he doesn't, but somehow he gets the best out of everybody. Yeah. And there's some kind of magic in that. And he's just, he's this creative genius that everybody knows of, but like works in a totally different way. And so I feel like when I, in my work environment, I kind of try and dip into that. Yeah, the boys were opening it up on the last podcast before we recorded. And they're like,

oh my gosh, this exactly applies to what we were just talking about. It's like very relatable in a lot of ways. Well, thanks, Dennis. I know you got a meeting, but thanks for picking up and being in our corner. Yeah. Good to talk to you, man. Okay. See you.

Bye, Dennis. Bye. Bye. When he's talking about that book, the Rick Rubin book, it reminds me something that I think both of you have referenced before in triathlon. Rick Rubin has this like willful ignorance towards music theory and reading music because he believes, and I think he's right, it helps him be kind of approach each thing a little more green a little more with a wondrous eyes of a child and when you like did your first trail race your 50k I wonder you've said this before like were you able to push yourself a little bit harder because of the ignorance that you had going in just like no I'm going

all out you don't have all this like PTSD trauma of all the 70.3s it's like oh my gosh this bike hurts just like it did the past six times it's like oh it's so hard and paul I wonder if you'll have the same thing with a full distance triathlon of just like going in fresh. Or even with the TT cycling. It's a little bit different. Yeah. Do you feel like, do you feel like that? Yeah, I think that's why I love it so much. It's just totally different. By the way, this book is called The Creative Act, A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. So if I don't want to check it out, it's pretty good. Eric, what's it like? I mean, the extent of how much I've read it so far, because I've only had a couple days, was I opened it up and it literally was talking about the

exact same thing that you and I were having conversation about. So my take on it so far is you could kind of open it up to any page and just read for two minutes and kind of get a, oh. Like a daily stoic type of thing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The book that's right underneath. Oh, it is?

That's great. That's great. Okay. Next call. Next call. This one's totally random. Dennis wasn't so random. Yeah, Dennis used to work at Form and he's in the triathlon space.

He worked at also at Sorbelo. Oh, the first time I met him was. He was working for the Canadian Olympic Committee in 2012 when I went to the Olympics. And I got introduced to him then, I think. But yeah, we've kind of kept in touch ever since then. At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up. Hey, Joey, what, dude.

Joe. Sam, hang up. Nice try. Joey. This was actually Nick from that Triathlon Live podcast with Eric and Paula. Jokes on you. Jokes on you. Sorry, well. Better luck next time.

Joey Oh Joey. Okay, I'll try someone else. Hello. Hello. I want to say hello caller, but we're the caller. So hello, human. This is Nick from That Triathlon Live podcast.

You're here live with Eric and Paula. Hey there. Hello. What's that? Okay, so I just... I'm sorry. What's your name? There's a train going by right now.

My name's Catherine. Okay, cool. Thanks for putting your number in and for answering. Yeah, thanks for call it. Hi, Catherine. Okay. We were hoping that you had a question for us to answer on our podcast. For sure. So I've only been doing triathlon for like a year and a half now. And my family pitched in and got me a really nice road bike, but I know I need a TT bike. If I want to go, the speeds I'm trying to go. My boyfriend was a bike mechanic and he's like, let's just

throw some arrow bars on it. But personally, I feel like I should probably look. look into financing, like a new TT bike with a warranty versus like trying to find something used. So I was wondering what your guys' opinion and all that would be. Yeah, I think it's, the used TT market is probably the most cost effective way to go. Even rim brake bikes. Like there's so many good TT bikes available that are used and maybe a bit older, but still will be so much faster than putting clipons on a road bike. right, right, Eric? Yep, yep, totally agree. And I don't know about the warranty thing. Like, you can always get carbon repair if something happens to the frame. We've never had an issue

with like components and stuff breaking. Yeah, we've had a crack carbon frame that we've repaired, I think, for like $350, $400. So obviously that's not zero, but it's not $2,500,000. Yeah, it's not really the same thing as a car where you don't want the warranty to run out, you know? Bikes aren't quite like that. How often, if there is a problem with a carbon frame, how often is it the manufacturer's fault versus you crashed the bike? Exactly. Are they going to replace it anyway? Sometimes they do have frame replacement programs that they'll give you a new frame for like 50% of, you know. Yeah, but you're paying so much money to get that.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a tough one. One other thing that I would say that you could look into is a friend of mine in Portland started a bike company called A2 Bikes, and they do have some sort of a rent-to-own program. I don't know if you've looked into that. Okay. Cool. No, I haven't listened to them. I've been mostly looking at like the lowest end canyon. I think the financing is like 200 a month. Oh, cool. But yeah, honestly. Yeah, it's not terrible, but.

We just were talking about this yesterday. Like, even the lower end components are almost just as good as the top end components now. Like Altegra or 105 or Tranforce. Yeah, it's, they're all so good. And mechanically, they work just as well. It's just a weight thing as you get more expensive. So I think you could, yeah, find a good deal, hopefully in the used market. Or do the financing thing.

get a brand new one. I think now is a good time to buy a bike on the used market. Yes, it is. It has collapsed a bit. Totally. I mean, and in the new market, like, the bikes, bike companies want to get rid of bikes right now. So they're actually available and maybe on sale. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any races this year? Um, yeah, I'm doing Boulder in June. That'll be my third half. And then I'm doing my first full in November. I'll be doing IMAZ. Oh, cool. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, definitely get a TT bike before that one. Yeah.

It'll be a long day. That's a long day. For real. That would suck. Cool. Well, thanks for picking up. It was good to talk to. Yeah, thank you guys.

And good luck this year at all your races. Thank you. You guys too. All right. Thanks, Chatham. Bye. Bye. All the podcast listeners are so well-spoken.

Have you noticed? They're just like on the spot and they're like, yeah, I got my shit together. No problem. That's true. For Aaron, a huge fan of the pod. Aaron, huge fan of the pod? Yeah. A-R-O-N.

A-A-R-O-N. Your call has been forwarded to voicemail. Damn it. The person you're trying to reach is not available. At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up. Hey, Aaron, this is the local bike shop. There is a free Tarmac S-Works bike here for your pickup.

Just come down and get it any time. All right, that's going to be confusing. He's going to, he's like, I'm here for my free bike. You guys called me and give it over. He goes, he just spends the next year going around to every bike shop in a radius. Like I was promised an S-Works tarmac. All right, here we go. Next one.

This is Sean. See if Sean picks up. The men are very reluctant to pick up the phone. Yeah, they're screening. There's prank calls. Hello, this is Sean. Oh, Sean. This is Nick from That Triathlon Life podcast.

You are on our 150th episode. Eric and Paula are here too. Wow. Holy moly, I'm right about to go on a bike ride, so this is perfect timing. Wow. Amazing. Well, thank you for picking up. Yeah, we're cutting into your ride time, though, so we'll make it snappy. My question is, as Nick is an upper middle class triathlet, how do you guys all work out together? Like, are people waiting?

Oh, that's a good question. Working really hard. I was just thinking about this today, about how I like what we do now, at least for runs, which is like we all kind of go to the same place and then each do our own little route. Sometimes we'll run together still though. Yeah, I think that the thing that's easiest to do together is cycling because drafting has such a big impact.

It's how I can ride with Eric and all go the same speed as we can just sit on each other's wheels if one of us tired. Obviously, swimming is fun. I actually am really good at adapting our swim workouts for Nick. Yes, you are. So if we're doing hundreds, Nick will do 75s and we'll be on the same interval. So we're doing the same workout, but he's just doing a little bit. bit less meters than us. So we find interesting ways to do it, but it's similar with me and Eric

going to train together, like we'll warm up together and then we'll go our own ways for the hard stuff. And emotionally, it's fine because you know the other person's there. Yeah. It's like you almost get the same benefit of that group activity without having to like run with Eric. Yeah, the starting is always the hardest part with any activity. Totally. Yeah. But Nick's faster than he gives himself credit for. It depends. It depends. We went skiing the other day, and I was having problems keeping uphill with our pregnant friend. So it depends on the activity, I think. Depends on the time of year.

I feel like you have to, I think you had your helmet on. So getting some more airflow or something like that. That's what I needed. More airflow. That would have fixed the problem for sure. That's true. Sean, I noticed you had a skiing picture in your profile, so that's why we picked you. Nice.

Thank you. Yeah, I'm in Santa Barbara right now. So I'm about a mountain bike. and also check out what you guys were doing in Ventura because I know you spoke highly of it. Oh my gosh. Are you doing Gibraltar in Santa Barbara? No, I'm doing Ewing's Park or Ellings Park.

Now it's like a little mountain bike. He's on a mountain bike. Oh, right, right, right, right. That's right. Oh, we're jealous. We're on the snow, so hopefully we'll make it down to Ventura again. Yeah, enjoy that ride for us, man. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thanks for picking up and thanks for listening to the podcast. Yeah, of course. I'm a big time supporter. Thank you. Thanks, John. See ya. Bye.

All right. Santa Barbara right now, riding mountain bikes. Sounds great. Eric's like, no. I refuse, don't get to think of it.

We could leave tomorrow and go to California. You could. We have a van and we have... Yeah. All the things, of course. But we probably won't because we also like home.

Oh, Tyson. This is Nick from that Triathlon Live podcast. You are on the podcast. 150th episode. Eric and Paula are here too. How the heck are you? Great, man. I'm doing great. I've been

out sledding with a bunch of kids all day. We got a bunch of snow in the East Coast. Oh, nice. That's awesome. Yeah, it's been pretty cool. Yeah, it's been fun. Don't kids have school? Or they're not back at school? No, everything's canceled. Whoa. Yes.

They haven't been in school since the 20th of December. Feels good. That feels good. So, yeah, it's been pretty cool. My wife was stoked because she took this whole week off to kind of recharge after chilling out with the kids while, you know, they were on Christmas break. Yeah. And we totally ruined it by having them all have the day off.

Right. Snow days, extended vacation. That's a lot of time. Exactly right. Exactly right. Well, do you have a question that you would like to ask on the podcast, Tyson? Yeah, I do. I do.

He's a swim-related one for y'all. All right. So I, you know, I've been swimming, you know, just as I started to be in track. So, like, I don't know, maybe three or four years ago. And I have, like, maybe a 10 or 15-second faster 100 with a pool buoy than without a pool buoy. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.

And I was wondering, other than just don't use the pool buoy, what's a good drill to do to try to equalize those? Wait, question for you, Tyson. Are you, with the pull-booy, are you kicking? Yeah. Was that a yeah or nah? No, it's a no. Okay. And are you wearing paddles with a pull-boy or no paddles? Normally no paddles. Okay, wow. Yeah, I am the same way and I do think that I'm maybe not 15 seconds faster, but I am faster with a pull-booy and I think a lot of it comes down to your heart rate just being lower because you're not kicking and you're not using half your body. Sure. And it's holding your whole body position and kind of the optimal spot. And I don't know if there's a drill. that you can do for it, but really it's like, the fitter you get at swimming, the more that gap

will close, which is not the most fun answer to you. But 15 seconds, like those feet must be so low in the water without a pull-bole because that feels like a huge difference. I think it's probably just really bad, bad position. Yeah, I think one drill you can do is like try some over-kicking. So basically you're, when I swim, I don't think about my kick. It's kind of just an afterthought. My feet are dragging behind me like.

two beat kick or whatever, but a good drill to make sure you are kicking is do like six beat kicks. So six kicks per stroke. You're hardly able to go up. It'll be hard. Just do 25s this way. But that might bring your whole back end up and you're in a similar position

to pulling. I know I'm kind of making this up a bit, but. I mean, my brain went to just doing some straight up kicking. Like in during each warm up, doing, you know, four 50s at least or something of just kicking to just strengthen the kick, strength in the core, try to be as on top of the water as possible while doing that kicking.

That's a good point. Yeah. And then it's kind of hard to describe over the phone here, but I like putting on fins and paddles and doing just two-beat kick. So you might just want to look at on the internet of what a two-beat kick looks like. And I think really in a six-beat kick, you have two, a little bit stronger kicks that are the more important kicks and doing two-beat kick with fins reinforces those power spots. Yeah, a lot of people think of fins is like a cheater toy, but I think they're a really good tool. They've been for me.

Yeah. Because when you take them off, you're kind of like starkly reminded of how bad your position is. Right. You're like, oh, whoa, okay. Yeah, feet need to come up. Like, hips need to come up. Yeah, yeah. So maybe get a pair of fins.

That might help. Cool. Yeah. Sweet. But it is tough. And also, you just have to keep in mind, too, that a lot of the time in a triathlon, you're going to be wearing a wetsuit, and that's essentially wearing a pole boy.

So I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's not, I mean, it's not the worst thing in the world. to be better at pulling than at swimming when you're a triathlete. You all sold me a wetsuit I got from the garage sale. Oh, nice. Really?

Awesome. And I did a whole bunch of open water to get ready for my first 70.3. I did a bunch of open water just swims and was killing it. Yeah, yeah. I did Eagleman, and it was one degree over being wetsuit legal.

Oh. But it was cool. It was fun. It was still fun. Yeah, it's so much different. without one, but yeah. It's good to put what Eric said about doing kick and swimming. Like pure swimmers kick so much just as like a workout, you know.

They do so many kick things. So that could be a thing to do too. All right. Well, thanks for your question, man. Yeah, thanks so much for listening. And have fun with the kids on their extended holiday. It's going to be a blast. All right, take care.

Take it easy. Have it going. And I feel like I hearing about other kids who are, getting snow days gets me excited. I'm just like, oh, best thing ever. Like a primitive thing deep inside of you. Snow day, amazing, best thing ever. And also hearing about people's legs sinking and not having a pullboy.

I can relate to that. 15 seconds is a lot. Maybe this is showing my ignorance, but I didn't know that you could be slower. Sorry, I didn't know that you could be faster with a pull-boot. I thought worst-case scenario is you are the same. Yeah. Yeah, I guess that's a bit of an. unique situation.

Like I said, your heart rate is so much lower, you know? Oh, for sure. And you feel it. So you totally feel it. You were saying that swimmers kick a lot, like legit swimmers, but I wonder if that's just a product of, because most of their events are like at the most 400 or whatever. But I wonder if for like the 1,500, the longer events, are they kicking just as much? Yes.

So much. Well, it makes you really fit. And they're not biking or running really necessarily. But when I was in swimming club, we would do like 2100s on this. All kick. Like it was crazy how much kick we did. 2100s, all kick. Oh yeah. A thousand kick for time. Yeah. It's a thing. Oh my God. That's what kids in swim club we're doing. When I do a hundred kick by the end, my legs are just like these noodles. I don't know how I did it. Because I got really good at it. And now I'm twice as slow as I used to be at kick when I was a kid. I was never good at kick. Always a terrible kicker. Yeah, it's funny. You get to know in the swim group like who's the bad kicker. And it's usually a fast swimmer. It's a bad kicker. Right. Yeah, I don't know. If you have the kick and the fast swimming, then you're probably going to the Olympics. Right.

That's like, that's the magic combination. But anytime you're thinking, oh, it's not fair, that person grew up swimming, just imagine yourself doing a thousand kick for time once a week and feel okay. A nightmare. Wow. Okay, let's do someone else. All right. Hello?

Hi-athlete of the year. I don't know if you're triathlete of the year, but I'm going to give you that accolade right now. This is Nick from that triathlon life podcast. We are calling you because you are on our 150th episode. I'm here too. I'm Paula and Eric's here as well. Cool. First of all,

we're just looking here. We're all here, even Flynn. Yeah. Everybody's here. Can you tell us your name? Can you tell us your name? Because we just have Instagram names, not real names.

Yeah. My name is Krista. Nice. All right. Nice to meet you. Thanks for picking up. Nice to meet you guys too. This is so cool.

All right. Okay, Krista. So we were hoping you had a question prepared for us. Or if it's not prepared? I was thinking about this all day in case I got this call. Wow. And now I'm having a blank. That's okay.

That's okay. That's okay. That's okay. I'm like, that's going to happen. I know. Yeah, that's okay. So I guess my question would have to be what, well, I live in Montreal and I have family in Lacan-Aung-Altique. And so my question I think would be to Eric, what would it take for you to do the Canada

Man triathlon? on. I've been on this website a lot. What is it? I think the thing that kind of that stops me is there's not actually like an insane amount of trail on it. And I started looking at, oh man,

am I going to wear super shoes on this road section and somehow switch to trails? Oh man, I got to go to swimming. I'll think about this later. And then I haven't doubled down and really gone after it. Can you explain to us what it is, Eric? Correct me if I'm wrong, Krista. It's the, you can go ahead and go for it. I've done this race and I've paced multiple people and I've coached multiple people through

it. There is about nine kilometers of road and the rest is trail on the marathon. Okay. Oh, so it is a full distance. Yes, it's a full distance. Okay, and it is a all trail. And it is a TT bike ride, correct? Yeah, for sure. There's lots of arrow games. Okay, so that's going to be my struggle. I'm still having some hip problems, but if I ever get that sorted and I can get back on a TT bike and put out power, then I'm coming and doing it. Honestly, Eric has no interest in an Ironman unless it's something cool like this. Yes.

And correct me if I'm wrong, this is part of the extreme, like the X-Try series, so this would qualify you for Norseman. Right? Yeah, exactly. Wow. Well, I'm down to go to Montreal anytime. Me too. I'll watch Eric suffer. Maybe this time a bike will get lost.

That's true. That's true. We're driving. We're just going to drive there. That's awesome. Are you racing this year at any point? I am. I'm racing the Toronto Marathon and then Iron Man Ottawa. Oh, wow. I didn't know Ottawa had an Iron Man. That's amazing. Is it called something else?

The first year is going to be this year. So it's really awesome. It's like the inaugural race. That is so cool. Ride on. Hopefully they put a pro race there someday. That'd be fun. I know everybody would love to see you there. That's for sure. Sure. I was listening to another episode and you were like, I'm thinking about Hamburg. I'm like, come to Ottawa at first rate. Yeah, racing in Canada would be epic. I might come back to Montreal for the Canadian cycling championships again. So that would be my next time up there. But TBD.

Amazing. We'd love to cheer you on again. Thank you. Well, Krista, thank you for picking up. Yeah. Thanks for the question. And for the question. Yeah, that was fun. Thank you guys so much. I mean, it wasn't only a question. I guess that I did more explaining. You were locked and loaded. No, that was perfect. I'm trying to plant seeds. I guess that was the goal.

Nice. Seed planted. I love the podcast. But congrats on 150? 150. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you.

Bye. Bye. Bye, guys. Thank you. Iron Man Ottawa, new race. Wow. That's sweet. That's cool.

How often is a new race ever a pro race? Does that ever happen? Indian Wells maybe was, right? No. I feel like it's always year, too. at the earliest is my feeling. Yeah. Like that's how Oregon was and there's a new race going on in Washington, Tri-Cities.

Oh, yeah, Tri-Cities, that's right. Yep. Hello. Hello, this is Nick from That Triathlon Life. You are on the podcast with Eric and Paula. Hey, how's it going? Hello. Oh, my God.

This is so real. It is so real. It's so real. It's so real. Okay, so who are you? What's your name? Hi, my name is Trisha. I am from Wisconsin.

Oh, crazy. I can hear it. Yeah, I could hear it immediately. We actually talked to Jackie Herring a little bit ago, so I'm just having a flashback. Yep. Oh, my God. I am driving, so I need to pull over. You don't need to pull over.

You don't need to pull over. But if that's going to affect the safety of those around you and yourself, then yes, please pull over. I just had my son at swim lessons. Just the second person we've called who just dropped their kids off at swim list. This is a theme. You know, as we're calling people, I'm like, this is the time for kid activities. We're going to get so many people in the middle of stuff. But if you have time, we would love to chat.

Yeah. Oh, my God. Like, I feel like I'm dreaming. It's weird. It's about as real as it gets. So do you have a question for us? You know what? Okay, so I was actually watching Sam Laidlo's video tonight when I was doing some

Zwift training. Yeah. And I was kind of touched by how he was talking about after he won the championship at Nice, how he went through like a depression. And I know you guys have talked about this before, but specifically with Nick, who you just had the world championship, has that affected you at all with that huge goal, like kind of being checked off your list? Have you gone through anything emotionally? Yet? Yes, that's a funny question. You know, at full transparency,

I was already going through some stuff when that happened. That was taking most of my emotional energy. So did that, did I feel a down from that, from that goal? No, I did not feel that. I felt, I did feel a sense

of accomplishment finishing that race, even though, whatever, my bike power wasn't what I know I could do and my run pace wasn't as fast as I think I could have done. I did work as hard as I could on that day, and that's what I wanted to do. So, no, I didn't feel that come down in that way.

I have a feeling that I might feel that after finishing Ironman, Wisconsin, if I do so in September. And I definitely had a bit of this feeling when I qualified for Topaw, because that was more the point for me anyway, was qualifying, not so much. I knew I wasn't going to do well at the actual world. championship because there's people who are so skilled. But I think what Sam was explaining in his documentary was so applicable to high-level athletes

who go to an Olympic Games or go to a world championship. I've never won an Olympics or a world championship, so I can't relate to that level of success at these things. But I can relate to finishing a big event that's been on your calendar and been your goal. And for Sam, he wanted to win a world championship forever, and he's in his 20s, and he's done it. So now what? Like, there's nothing bigger than that. And I can completely relate to that feeling, and especially when it's kind of an off season after and no other race excites you as much.

But I think for Sam, like having Kona is cool because he's not won that race yet. And I think it's still like a beast that he can tackle that has completely different conditions than niece. So for him in particular, I don't think that that's the end of the story or anything. But I also was a bit touched by that realization that he had of having this kind of you should be the happiest you've ever. been yet you're kind of having this depressive kind of thing yeah yeah it was so interesting to hear so that was pretty real

that whole video was really good Eric have you ever had a moment like this in your career of like I did the thing just like how I wanted to do it uh oh I feel this like emptiness or something I actually experienced this a lot on like smaller levels

I even experience this is going to sound weird but I even experienced this after Paula and you did it did topa because I would was invested on like, I am extremely stressed that this is not going to go well at all after the Dubai result. I was very focused on doing the best that I could with documenting the thing with trying to be helpful and keep the stress low that like the days after I had a complete. Complete low as well. Okay, now what do I focus on? Like I just put all of, especially once I put out the video about that race.

It's like, okay, that book is fully closed. And now we have multiple months where there's like no North Star. There's no thing that I'm focused on a story that I'm. telling or like an imminent deadline. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Now what, where do I go?

Yeah. Do you have this when you put out a video that you worked hard on? Yes. Because I have it with songs. I have like, I have like a two week long thing. When I put out a video, I really,

really liked before I feel like, what am I going to take up the camera and do that is going to be anything close to as neat as like how I, the way that I felt about that. I think the point of all this is that it's normal. Yes. Yeah. For pros or amateurs or anything.

So yeah, that's a really good. question and I think probably will be, will resonate with a lot of the listeners too, right? Yeah. Is there a way around it or is this just part of having big goals? No, you just got to roll the roller coaster. I think that's I think that's just part of it.

Don't, yeah, don't feel crazy. It's just like that's got to be part of a natural thing. Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. Are you doing any races this year? I'm sorry, what? Do you have any races on the schedule? Or are you a triathlete? Maybe not. Yes, so actually, I kind of experienced

this after I did Washington, I had a goal to get a sub six. I'm a not that very fast. So this was very exciting for me. And then I had that down like, oh my gosh, I reached this now what I do. You know, am I ever going to get this again? So I'm going to Wisconsin again. Nice. To get sub six there. And I know that is hopefully attainable. And Nick, hopefully, I'll be able to see you. I know. Hopefully you'll see me alive. It won't be raining.

I'll be there cheering for sure. Oh, that's awesome. If you have some CTL meetups, I'll be there to support as well. Oh, yeah. Appreciate. Yeah, that'll happen. That'll happen.

Cool. Well, thanks for picking up. Thank you so much for calling me. Oh, my God. I did not think this was going to happen. So the fact that I saw what I thought was a telemarketer and I actually answered. That's been our main point.

problem is people think we're spam, but we're not spam. Oh, my gosh. Well, you guys, enjoy the night. Thank you so much. I appreciate all you do for us. You're welcome. Thank you. Have a good night.

Bye-bye. Bye. Worth it for that amazing accent alone. She sounds like Jackie. I love, I don't know what it is about that accent. It's one of my favorites in the U.S. It's not that strong, but it's not that strong. It's not that strong, no.

Okay, we got maybe one more question that but till I got to go. Okay, so this might be our last call today. We've gone, this is quite, I don't know how long this is going to edit down to, but we've been going for a while here. But it's so fun. It's so fun. Maybe we'll do it again and then do another podcast like this. You know, we can do this without the video portion, which is so much of the production is like

the time set up the cameras and the lights and the editing is the whole thing. Next time I'm here, we could do another one of these where we call books. Yeah, they're really fun. Yeah. We've got so many people's phone numbers now. We do. Remember last year, we're going to sell it to the blog market. and put your phone number in.

Okay, so this last person here, let's give him a call. Hello. Hello, this is Nick Goldston from That Triathlon Life podcast here with Eric and Paula. Is this Jason? What's up? This is Jason. I like how a lot of people's first reaction is to crack up laughing. They're like, oh my gosh, it's happening.

I was like, who is calling me from New York? Yep, that's me. Not spam. Not spam. Not spam. Not spam. Really us. So how are you, Jason? I'm doing great. I'm finishing up at work.

Very nice. Do you have a few minutes to chat with us? I absolutely do. Are you guys having a good day? I hope things are going well so far. Yeah, it's going super well. This is so fun for us to surprise people with a call. And you're actually our last call of the day. So we're wrapping up. I'm glad I could fit in there. I'm glad you could pick up. Yeah, that's awesome. So Jason, did you have a question that you would like to ask us on the podcast? Yeah, sure. What are you guys? most proud of this season, or I should say this past year, other than the wedding, of course,

because obviously you guys are super stoked for that, and I think we all are for you. It doesn't have to be a triathlon accomplishment, but just what are you guys most proud of in the past 2024? Good question. Well, yeah, I guess besides successfully marrying Paula, that's like an obvious one now that you mention it. Thank you, by the way. Yeah, I wasn't necessarily guaranteed.

Yeah, I think for me probably the 50K that I did at the end of the year. Just not just the accomplishment or whatever, but like finally taking a leap in doing that instead of doing a triathlon, which is, you know, I've thought about this for a long time and having the courage, going and doing it, committing to it. I'm proud that I actually did it. Yep. Very cool. Not to like toot my horn and say my results or anything, but my proudest was winning

the TT championships the day or two days before Montrauma, 70.3. That whole trip I was kind of in a rough place before I went and I was considering not even going. And then to go and have two good races back to back amidst a lost bike and a bunch of stress, it was definitely the highlight of my racing year and the most fun I had racing for sure. Love that race so much. Awesome. That's really cool to hear. For me, I think it's maybe something that listeners can relate to to. The second half of my year, it was kind of like emotionally rough, but I didn't let, I still trained.

I still like worked hard swim biking and running when it was extra difficult to do so. Like some people I feel like they use that as like Paula, you're one of these people. Like if you're having a tough time emotionally, a workout will actually kind of help you and distract you from that. I think for me it's a little bit the opposite. It makes the workout feel even more difficult somehow because I'm like thinking about this other thing. But I stuck with it and then I got to the best fitness that I've experienced. yet in my short triathlon career. So I think I'm most proud of that.

And what's funny, all three of us are things are, they're like mental things. A little bit. Like yours, you're saying you didn't even want to necessarily go and it was two days after this event. Eric, yours was also like finally getting around to doing this thing. It's funny. Like that is where I think our pride comes from. Surmounting difficult mental things.

Yeah. Just like I showed up and surprised myself at how fast I ran this race or whatever. It's like, no, no, no. It was the mental effort that went. into actually get in there. A little bit of struggle. Yeah, totally. It's a good question.

Do you have any races this year, Jason? I'm kind of shifting this year into more gravel cycling, and I'm signing up for an ultra, like it's currently on my computer screen right now. Oh, damn. So no triathons at this point, but Eric kind of inspired me to sign up for a 50K. I just did in the world like you guys did. So now I'm kind of looking for what my next adventure is going to be. That is so perfect. That is the perfect way to end this podcast.

We inspired someone to go do something besides an on-road traveling. So, wait, so you're at work, but there's a sign-up for an ultra on your computer screen? What's going on here, guys? In fairness, I have two monitors, and work is on one of them. Oh, okay. I see. Okay. Okay. Well, hopefully your boss doesn't listen to this podcast. Absolutely not.

So, hey, thanks so much, and thanks for all you guys give to the community and the pod and everything. So thank you. Thanks for picking up. Have a good night. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Smashing success. Wow. How fun.

I don't want to stop. I know. It's just great. It's just great. I love hearing them laugh when they pick up when they realized what happened. I mean, everyone we called was shocked. Yeah. It was crazy.

Yeah. Even Jackie. Even Jackie. Why are you calling me? Are you dying? I don't think I've ever called her before. We've texted, but I don't think I've ever called. Yeah, I've only called her a few times.

We just text. Yeah. Cool. Eric has a physio appointment. He's got to get to. Flynn is so stiff. Is he limping? He's sore boy.

He's done a bit of run in the last couple days. He wasn't supposed to go on the long run with me today, but he chased after me instead of Paula and we reconnected, and then we were all just locked into the 70-minute version together. We both set off on this run, but I gave Eric a three-minute head start because I was going to run slower with Flynn and do less. But Flynn bolted and he could smell which way his dad went. Of course he could.

And he found his dad. He wants to be in the A-group. Yeah, A-group. Race line. Cool. Well, thank you guys for. listening. Thank you to everyone who supports the podcast. Crazy that we've done 150 episodes. Thank you to everyone who picked up today and had a question for us. That was super cool and fun.

And we'll say we're going to do this again because it's so fun. This live calling thing. You know what? It's actually, it's less prepped than a regular podcast. Yes. So it's kind of great. It's a win-win. Yeah, totally. Cool. Well, we'll talk to you guys next week for a normal episode and have a good training. Sweet. Later, everybody. I'm