That Triathlon Life Podcast - Eric and Paula race IM 70.3 Chattanooga triathlon, Eric qualifies for world championships, heat acclimation, and more!

Episode Date: May 26, 2022

This week we start by going into Eric and Paula's race in Chattanooga where Paula got 2nd, and Eric got 7th. Eric earned his spot for IM 70.3 World Championships, and a big jump in the PTO rankings. We then get into  some questions about using super shoes on gravel, heat acclimation, recovery time after a race, and much more. For everything else, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com 

Hello everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Eric Loggersham. I'm Nick Goldston. And this is our fun podcast where we talk about triathlon. We answer all of your questions that you have. Eric and I are both professional triathletes. Nick is an amateur triathlete and a professional musician and a jack of all trades. I think I've said that before, but you're not a jack of all trades. You're a master of all trades. No, Jack of all trades is that's generous enough. So I'll accept that. I'm Eric and Nick had an awesome podcast last week with Talbot Cox, which was a treat to listen to. I really enjoyed it, and I thought it was awesome. We got a lot of amazing feedback on it. But my favorite comments for the ones that said that everyone missed me.

My own mother. My own mother said that she missed you. I'm like, you're supposed to talk about me, mom, okay? Yeah. I was like, no one, everyone's going to like this way better without me. I just jabal on all the time. But a select few of you. No, we got Talbot in there to Jabalon.

all the time in your place. Yeah. No, I thought he was a good, like from an outside perspective because I wasn't there, obviously. He was so good. I thought his insights were good. He's funny. He's very well. You can tell a story really well.

Knowledgeable in the sport. And yeah, it gave some cool background in photo media stuff that a lot of people don't, you guys maybe take for granted that you already know, but most people don't. So I thought it was interesting. Yeah. I think at some point in time we are going to have to have them back on because there were quite a few comments. And we felt the same way as we wrapped it up because I had to get to the airport.

port. Like, we could have gone on, I felt like we were just getting warmed up with getting into good stuff. Yeah, for sure. Part two, maybe someday. He's really like one of the ultimate behind the scenes people to have.

Yes. Well, I wanted to talk about your race. You guys both race this past weekend. It's not something that we talked too much about on the last podcast, but this was North American 70.3 championships, right? Yeah, Chatt Newden.

And you both made it to the start line and you both made it to the finish line. But that's as much as, as I'll give away about it. Do you guys want, what was a day like? Yeah, so it's Tuesday now. We raced on Sunday, so just a couple days ago. Eric, do you want to start?

I'm just trying to get my thoughts together. We can just do a quick debrief on the races. Yeah, I mean. Our results were that I was second and Eric was seventh. Yeah, and pretty strong field. It was basically the same sort of caliber as the fields that we race in Oceanside, at least on the men's side. I'm not sure.

It seemed like pretty equivalent on your side. On the guy's side, there was Rudy Von Berg and Jackson Laundry and Ben Canute and Matt Hanson. And did I say Jackson Laundry already? It was a great, great field. So, I mean, like the top five was going to be super fierce no matter what. And I had like a pretty stretch goal of being on the podium. I just really want to get on the podium to 70.3 sometime this year. And I do think there was a possibility that the race played out in a certain way.

way that that could have happened. But like it would have required me getting into a smaller group out of the water, essentially. But the way that Chattanooga works is it's a downriver swim. You start in the water, which is not really a specialty of mine. And then the water was also like total glass. It was just a beautiful morning with no chop or anything. So things didn't really break up with the exception of Ben Canute getting off the front. And I think he came out of the water like 35 seconds ahead of the group that I was then leading. And we, the group that I was in sort of like came together with the group, I don't know, it ended up being like 12 guys on the bike around 30K.

And we all rode around the whole course together and came into T2 as quite the unit. If you look at, if you were watching the live feed, it looked like an ITU race or something when we all came into transition. But the thing about a bigger group like that is it's really hard. If you're like where I was sitting about. like fifth to eighth position in it, it's really, really challenging to make it to the front of that group. And if you do make it to the front of that group after pushing like 450 watts for two minutes, like then you have to continue pushing hard once you're there for at least a while.

And it's, so it's really, it keeps the thing, it neutralizes it to a certain extent. And it's really challenging to break it apart. So it just ended up coming down to a run at that point, obviously and Matt Hansen and Jason West, both phenomenal, phenomenal runners that made it into that group. And we all took off out of T2, probably a little too fast for the temperature that was going on in the day. It wasn't like super hot, but it was really humid. I was at one point up and running in the third place, but faded probably around 8K. And yeah, managed to make it home in seventh. But the positive about that is that he actually got a good number of PC.

points and jumped up 28 spots to be 50th in the world rankings. Yeah. Which was kind of a goal of this race was like to get enough PTO points to make a significant jump so that he could potentially get into like the Edmonton race, the Dallas race, and just be a contender within those races. Because we like personally, you know, Nick, I know that he deserves to be at those races because he's a top contender at all 70.3 races. But his ranking wasn't high.

So I am relieved for one to, I know he wanted to be on the. podium, but I'm relieved that that happened. And also, he was able to grab a qualifying spot for world championships. Oh, yeah, yeah. So a lot of good things there. Yeah, yeah, that is the positive of going to a super competitive race like that. Like three or four of the guys in front of me, I already had world championship spots. So I end up getting the second one that was on offer to the second one of four total spots

since it was a continental championship. And the more competitive the sport gets, the less given it is that you're going to get a world's qualifying spot. Like it used to kind of not be too tough to grab one, especially later in the season. But now it's definitely not a guarantee. So it's kind of a relief also to check that off. Yeah, sooner rather than later. Eric, when you were talking about biking like that, and it's something that you and I've talked about a lot for how much it affects your race dynamics. It's funny as an age grouper, when we think like, oh, we're in this group of super fast.

like, and we're working together, it's almost always a positive, right? For us, because it's like, okay, yeah, these are all fast guys, but like I don't really care how well they finish. But for you, it's this huge problem because, like you said, you can't really reasonably go around them. And then all that happens is you guys are just riding together into T2 and then you're going to have to outrun these people.

It's such a different race dynamic with the pros. You see all the people who you are actually racing against. They're all around you. Yeah. I mean, basically just the thing is just the group was too big. It's definitely a positive to be in a group. And I couldn't have, like, ridden away from, you know, we'll say three quarters of the guys in that group.

Like, I would be hanging on for dear life to, like, stick with Ben and Rudy and Jackson on their good days. But we needed to get more root space between us. And, like I said, Matt Hansen and Jackson, not Jackson, but Jason West, who ended up ultimately winning. I think the problem of this was the nature of the course didn't really allow for spreading out or getting away or, you know, getting away out of the water because it was so straight. Like there were actually no corners. It was really rolling and groups kind of bunched together and accordion backwards when it is rolling like that.

So it didn't really. It's not like St. George where the punchy climbs can break things up. It really is hard to get away. The rollers were, you know, like 10 seconds. to get up them. And there was one hill in the whole course that was like an actual sustained climb was like maybe 45 seconds. And the group did splinter at the top of that because you go up that and then you have like this long descent and it kind of split up there. But then we immediately hit an aid station and it all came back together when people grabbed water bottles.

Well, did you feel happy with how your body felt on the bike? Yeah, on the bike for sure. but it's also hard to know because it was so surgy. We'd be doing 450,500 watts going up a hill and over the top and then coasting down the back side of it and trying not to get drafting penalty and just, I mean, it's, it was so erratic. It's hard to know how it felt.

Because you're not thinking about it too. Yeah, and just like relative to like L.A. try where I just, it was a solo TT and I just tried to sit on the red line. But I didn't feel very good in the swim at all. I got hit a bunch and I felt. super lactic and just like trying to get to the end of that. Right. So I think that was a little bit of an indication of like maybe wasn't a hundred percent, but it's hard to say. Yeah. Well, that's, that's interesting. Well, Paula, you and I also talked

about your race a little bit, but there's some stuff I want to hear you kind of go through it from beginning to end and see how you felt, especially I was, I was really interested in what you were talking about your experience on the bike and how that was different from previous races you've had. Yeah. Yeah, I'll make it pretty brief because I know we have a lot of good questions to get into for this pod. But I don't know that recapping this race is hard for me to do publicly because I don't want to be condescending or like disrespectful to people that finished behind me. But I just feel like the performance I had didn't deserve a second place finish. Like it was kind of a weird feeling because yeah, I'm happy to finish on the podium, but I was not happy overall with like how I felt

or how I did or my paces or my power meter or anything like that. So I don't know. It's kind of a weird position to be in and I didn't swim that well. It was really far back from Holly, started the bike, and my mission was to catch her. And I just could not push any power. And I was worried the night before that I was getting sick because I had a sore throat going to bed. And I was like, maybe I have COVID or I don't know, like you just overanalyze everything when you're going into a race like this. So I was honestly like 20K into the bike going to flip around and ride back to transition and just like help Eric and cheer for him. But then Jackie Harrow. caught me and passed me and she

kind of chatted for a second and said, are you okay? I was like, well, I feel terrible, but I'm going to try to keep going. And she's like, well, just ride with me and we'll like just do a bike ride. I was like, okay, that's a good way to reframe it. That's so nice. So instead of like sitting and time trialing and trying to like look at my power meter and make it as high

as it could be, I was now like riding with Jackie obviously within the legal distance because there was like a rough right beside us the whole time. So we were extra careful of that. but it just kind of reset my mind. And about an hour into the ride, we ended up actually catching Holly. So that also like kind of reframed the race a little bit. And I was like, okay, well, now I'm leading the race.

I can't stop now. And it made it a lot more fun because at that point I wasn't looking at power. I was just in a bike race with these two. And we were kind of swapping leads a little bit. And it's the first time I really had that experience in a 70.3 where I wasn't just time trialing by myself. And I was, yeah, in a race that was when I was at the front, I was pushing super hard.

And then when you're sitting 12 meters back from someone, it's shockingly easier. And I've never experienced that before, like consistently being able to sit behind someone for a couple minutes and just like kind of recover and the amount of watts it saves. Even though it's like a non-drafting race, you definitely get an effect if you're 12 meters back. So, yeah, came off the bike. We had dropped Holly at some point, which I was surprised about. But I knew, I know Holly is really a strong runner. and she wasn't far back off the bike.

So I'm not confident in my running right now. I haven't done a lot of it. And I thought Jackie was for sure going to outrun me. So my plan in my mind was just to try to not let Holly or fourth place catch me, which is not a really good mindset to be in. I obviously wasn't in the headspace to be racing for the win. I was kind of just trying to hold position, which isn't super positive. Yeah, and same thing on the run.

I wasn't feeling great. I just kind of got through it. and Holly wasn't having a great day either, so she didn't catch me. And we put a lot of time on everyone else in the field on the bike, so I didn't have to worry about anyone running up to us. So yeah, the run just became kind of a mission to get to the finish line. And it was really fun when on lap two, we were passing a lot of the age group men, and every single one of them cheered for me.

It was like such a fun experience. So it made the second half of the run actually pretty fun, Even though I wasn't like rolling super fast, it was still such a cool experience to have people be like, T-TL nation. It made me laugh. And I wasn't like redlining at any point. Like my breathing was super under control. I didn't feel like I was working hard, but my legs were tired and non-responsive, really. So I could like even chat a little bit with some of the people I was passing, which was kind of fun.

So yeah, that was my day. Finish second and with mixed emotions, but can't really complain because that's a good. finish in that kind of a race. Do you feel like there's anything that you can learn from riding, so quote unquote, easy for you and like with someone versus riding off the front the way that seems like you usually are? Yeah, well, the nature of these races these days is that you can't really be riding easy at any point.

And I don't know, it really just depends how the race plays out. and like, for example, in Oceanside, I didn't ever catch Taylor Nibb, so I couldn't ride with her. And I caught Holly briefly, but couldn't really ride with her. So a lot of the time in the women's race passes happen, but then the person who's passing just keeps going and gets ahead. So it tends not to bunch up as much as the men's races do. And I'm not really sure why that is. But this was just a unique situation, at least for me, where the three of us did end up staying together because we're all pretty equal. capability on the bike.

Yeah, but it was eye-opening. It was like, wow, it changes the type of race it is because you're thinking of different things. You're like, don't get a draft penalty. You're not looking at your power meter. You're just racing. And that's fun to me. It reminded me a little bit of eye to you where you're not as stuck on your

power meter. It seems like, Eric, you came to this kind of similar realization at Worlds in St. George last year. Yeah. When you were in a group of really fast guys and you were just like, oh, oh, this kind of, this changes things. Yeah. And I think your experience wasn't that, oh, this is so much easier.

You were like, this is extremely hard, but it does, you're just rolling so much faster. Yeah, well, it's certainly easier to go the time that we right. You know, it's just mentally, Paula nailed it. Yeah, it's mentally. It's so much mentally more interesting and less uncomfortable. Yeah. Just like doing a workout with other people, like a master's swim group or something, you go 1 and a half percent. You know, you go 10 percent faster and with lower perceived exertion just because you're not focusing on how you feel every single.

Right. Yeah, exactly. I think on a day where I was feeling better, I may have played my cards differently and tried to do like a massive five-minute surge and broken away from them. Maybe that would have been my best chance of like winning the race. But I just wasn't feeling like I could do that. on Sunday. And do you think there is any, did you feel a difference in your run

because you didn't have to kind of push this high wattage the whole time on the bike? I don't know. It's hard to know with your run fitness right now. Yeah, exactly. I tend to just like run four minutes per K right now and I just can't get my legs to go faster,

which is frustrating. But I think it would on a normal day where I have better run fitness and more mileage in my legs, it for sure would make the run faster. The freshness would have made you run faster. For sure, yeah. Well, the last thing I wanted to talk about is for age groupers who are maybe like considering doing this race next year.

Is there any tips you have for that? Or do you think it's a good race for an age grouper? Yeah. I know I've been talking nonstop, but I did get a few questions about this like on my direct messages on Instagram. Like do it. I'm considering this race. Should I do it? I would 100% say yes.

And I think Eric would agree. It's such a nice place. The bike course is super fond. roller coaster kind of feel where it's like up and down, up and down, but no massive climbs. Not too windy. We were lucky it wasn't too hot. It's super humid, but I don't know. I loved it.

Definitely prettiest, one of the prettiest, like maybe second just to Nice bike courses that we've done. This beautiful, beautiful country rolling roads. And it was insanely green. Couldn't believe it. And then the run course was really, really neat as well. You go across two different bridges over the river. Chattanooga and you're running along this bike path by the river. It's very, very high up there in

terms of- Yeah, it might be one of my favorite courses, actually. And the downriver stream is cool because like the actual time it takes is the same because they make it longer than a normal 70.3. Yeah. So it doesn't necessarily favor weaker swimmers, but it's a cool concept, you know, to be like, wow, when we got on the bus to drive to the start, we were driving for like 10 minutes. And I was like, I can't believe we're swimming this far. So it's cool. It's really cool. It's like, wow, you're starting one place, finishing in another.

But logistically, the day before the race is super easy because everything is, there's only one transition zone. So you're dropping your shoes and your bike all at the same place, same place you're picking up your package. It's not like St. George where you're driving all day. That was so nice to just be able to do that and be back home at like 2 o'clock in the afternoon instead of driving all over town back and forth. Yeah, short answer is yes, do this race. Highly recommend. Yeah. Volunteers also.

I said something on my Instagram post. Volunteers were so good. Yeah. Like the second time that I was running with T.O. For a good chunk of it. And the second time we came back past like the same aid station a couple times, they like knew our order. They knew that Tio wanted Coke and water. Wow.

He heard them like yell out before we got there. And they were just like so into it, grabbing cups as fast as they could. Sometimes, you know, people are just sleepy in the morning or don't. seem to care that much. They're just trying to get their volunteer hours, but everybody here was super into it. It was great. Yeah, I agree. Wow. High energy. That's awesome. Well, I loved kind of, I woke up a couple times to see how you guys were doing, and I was really happy to see how you guys were. I know, I knew that Eric had this stretch goal of getting on the podium, but those guys in front of him were all like superb, and he was still able to beat Ben. And, you know, Ben is such a great

competitor. So I think it's a pretty good day. And the PTO rankings bump for him. And and the World Championships slot. They're all good things. Yeah. Yeah, I do think that will be just close enough maybe that I'll roll on

to the Edmonton start list. So fingers crossed for that. Great. So I did have a little spelling bee, but I think I'm going to save that for next week just in the interest of getting to these questions. Okay. No, that's good.

We're still pretty jet lagged. So I'm like just catching myself getting distracted by two robins on our roof out the window. Well, the thing is no one wants to hear you spell the words correctly. We all want to hear you spell them wrong. So you're being jet-lagged is the perfect time. But I'm going to spare you this one time.

I'm going to spare you this one time. Let's do you questions since we didn't get to any questions last week. Yes, that's right. So the first question is from Kelly. Kelly starts by saying some really nice stuff and then moves on to the question, which is Eric, the PTO website says, you like to watch a romantic comedy in the days leading up to a race. Do you still do this? What's your favorite romantic comedy

to watch. Congrats on your great finish of Chattanooga. Yes, I've been there for it as well. I've been there for it as well. This week it was something's got to give. A great movie. So good.

And then also, this is super funny actually. We didn't finish it the night before the race. And then like the Monday after we're like flying out that day. And I'm like, we got to pack the bikes. We got to do the laundry. We got to like clean up the apartment. And Eric's lying on the ground with no clothes on because he just got out of bed watching the end of the end of the.

the movie. His laptop. Wait a second. I didn't finish it. Toby makes fun of me for that. I'll rewatch like parts of the movie the next day too because I'm just like still reliving it. Oh, that's so funny there.

I just thought it was funny because it was like, okay, he's watching a romantic comedy because it's lighthearted. It takes his mind off the race. But he was like actually so into the movie. He's invested. The race was over and he was still had to finish the last 30 minutes. So he. Well, I could just just finish at a point where I was like, I need to get, I need to see

the end to have, you know. So that is good, that's a good indication that it's actually a very good movie and a good one to watch before a race. Totally takes your mind off the race. Yeah. Do you know what I just watched last week was Emma Stone, Crazy Stupid Love? Have you seen that one? We've done that a lot. That was a thousand times.

Loved it. That's a good romantic comedy for people as well. Great. Emphasis on the comedy there. Yeah, definitely. Thank you, Kelly, for that question. The next one is from Byron. I wonder if it's from massage therapist, Byron.

Probably not, but maybe. Dearest Flynn and Humans. I like that. We are secondary. Love all that you do. I've been watching the vlog since transition four. And I have a few questions. That's an OG.

That's a day one. First of all, they have a question that we don't have an answer to yet, but we are working on it. It's Nick. Whenever someone says TTL, Nesh, they spell it like six different ways. How do you spell that abbreviated word? I'm befuddled. We don't know yet. Didn't we decide that it's not to be spelled?

It's only a spoken thing. Oh, my gosh. I love that. It's like the artist formerly known as Prince. That's what Eric said one day while we were driving. He's like, you don't spell it. You just say it. Wow.

Or you know what? I think that if you are going to write in, and you're going to spell it, let your personality shine through in the spelling of the word. Yeah. So if you want to spell it, N-A, dollar sign,

H-H-Y, that's fine. And I know that you're the kind of person that puts dollar signs and how to spell words. Yeah. Yeah, it's, use your imagination. And then the question is for you guys, for Eric and Paula,

are you ever down to be driving a wrapped sprinter van and set up expos and selling TTL gear and trinkets to the mass think of all the strangers Nick would meet. Yes, but there's two of us, unfortunately. So if we could have clones of ourselves

or we didn't have to do the actual race or train or anything, that would be awesome. But so far, the most that we've been able to do is bring, like, two special T-shirts to an event and, you know, do a couple of two-hour pop-ups, you know, the day or two days before the event. And that still takes a lot out of us. And like it's really, it's really positive and it's really fun, but it's like a huge energy output to be like just talking to people for two hours.

Yeah, I think also not that we don't like it, but it's just not like our 100% true number one passion and priority right now to be making all the gear. Like maybe it is, but also we're trying to race and win races and do the vlog and do the podcast. And there's so many outlets to TTR that the apparel is not our number one focus. It is really cool how popular it is and how passionate people are about it. And that's made us kind of put more of our energy into it. But it's certainly not at the point now where we're running to have a full-on expo at every 70.3 necessarily. Well, I would say I personally want to, but we just... Oh, Eric's more passionate about it.

Yeah, it would negatively impact performance too much. The problem is the ideal situation is for it to happen a couple days after the race. but everyone's gone. Everyone's gone. Or even to go to a race where we're not racing, like a full, you know? Right. But that still presents the problem of, okay, and so where, like you're going to drive two days to a race that you're not racing at

to compromise your training, to just to put a pop-up, it seems like it's real hard. Yeah, like Paula said with Luke and Beth, with When Republic, they were pretty much, I don't know, halfway retired when they really, really started taking that to events and stuff to just if anybody's ever worked in an expo or just worked in retail in general, being on your feet and doing that in a warm environment for eight hours is just, you're toast. Yeah. But we appreciate that you want us to.

Yeah. Someday. Someday. And I do think there is going to be a bit more of that here and there. Maybe in a race that only Eric's racing at or only Paul is racing at, we can kind of make that work. Yeah. But so thank you for that question, Byron. Next question is, hey Nick, Eric, Paula and Flynn.

While I appreciate each of you and enjoy all segments of the pod, this question is for Paula. In most recent TTF vlog, your nails looked bomb as you showcase the new water bottles. What nail polish do you use to keep them looking so good even with all your swimming, general active lifestyle, cooking, etc. A fellow triathlete who believes in look good, feel good mentality. First of all, before you say that, you guys do have two new bottles on the website right now that are available to purchase. And there's also a 20% off sale going on for a bunch of other items. So people should definitely head over to that triathlonlife.com and see if there's anything that strikes your fancy.

Yeah, we're kind of trying to clear inventory a little bit because we're getting a lot of cool stuff in now. But if you've ever wanted some clothing but didn't want to... Shell out the dough. Payful price for it. This is the time. Take a little bit of the edge off for people who have to pay for international shipping, maybe. Yeah. Yeah.

But Paula, nails. When I first met you, you were not doing anything to your nails. Yeah. I hope our friend Samantha is listening to this. Well, no, back in the day, like, before I met Eric even, I was pretty consistent about, like, getting manicures and pedicures. It was a thing. Really? And then I met Eric, and I was like, he loves me unconditionally.

I don't need to impress him with my nails. That's still true. I need to. Stop being so easy to be insufficiency. No, I only started my most recent manicured

routine like a few months ago. But I like it. I think it's fun to have like nice nails and people notice obviously which is very cool. And to be honest, I get like the gel nails where they do like a layer

and then you put it under this UV light so it kind of like sets and they do another layer. And I find they look good for about a week and then they kind of start to peel. but that's the best way to make them kind of stick through swim bike run. And I'm at the point now where I don't really want to go every other week, so I'm just going to do it pre-race, like the week before I leave for a race, get them done.

So they look good like race nails. But yeah, I think that anytime you just do regular nail polish that you like buy at a drugstore, it's not going to last with all the training and cycling and everything. So get gel, which sounds so girly. But it's the way to do it. I mean, I'll tell you, it all sounds grilly to us. We're like gel or the one you get at the gas station. It's all the same.

No, it's not. No, but no one makes me worried about like gel. It is not the same. I can confirm. Oh, really? Okay, I've never noticed anything in my life. But gel, like, so that you put your hands under this like UV light or something. I have seen that.

Is this giving me cancer or something? Like, this could not be healthy for you. And then when you take the gel nail polish off, your nail, do kind of look shitty. Like they got, they don't, I don't know. I don't know if it's good for your nails. And I don't know if it's good for your skin on your fingers.

But they look good race fast. So maybe it's worth it. I mean, your nails do regrow so fast. Yeah, it's crazy. But anyway, that's not like, yeah. That's what I do. The end. That's the hack guys.

to get the gels, the fancy gels. But please don't be getting those like two inch long nails for triathlon. Those are like veneer. No, that's like, that's like doping for swimming. It's like swimming with a paddle. You know? It's like extra pulling. Yeah. I think

for those they actually like glue a fake nail on your nails or something. I don't know. I don't get into that. I have, you know what? I've yet to see that in triathlon. Is someone with the long nails? The super long nails. Yeah, that's fine. Well, thank you for that great question.

We love specific questions like that. And since that's new to Paula, she's been going with her friend Samantha to get her nails done, so that's kind of fun. Next question is from Rolando. Yo, Paula, Eric, and Nick. Love the YouTube channel slash podcast. Few questions for the pod.

One, merge drop soon, question mark. Trying to support the channel through purchasing some merch. So do we have a date yet for the June merch drop? First of all, I really dislike the term merch. Merch, okay. I'll tolerate your Lelanda's question, but Nick, you're not allowed to say merch. Okay, gosh.

But we have a huge June launch coming. Yeah, or like late June, early July, kind of just depends, you know, like COVID, supply chain, all that stuff. But we've like fully gone 100% custom on this. We've made, we're making a couple pocket teas and just really kind of a next level stuff. If anybody's ever ordered anything from the apprae line that we did, with it had like the women's leggings and the women's shirt, it's that same factory that we're working with and it's going to be... We're actually making really nice women's shorts too. And crewnecks, we'll be back. And crew necks. And

like the women's shorts are so comfy. There's a... We kind of tried to make them similar to some of the other brands of shorts that I love already. So we sent some samples in and they've kind of created this like morph of a bunch of different brands that I like into our own. And it's the colors are cool. We've got like a kelp and a gray and the drawstrings are cool. And we just paid really close attention to the details

like the stitching and the labeling and all of that. We got to pick where the zipper went and like the exact color of the stitching on the draw string. It's like totally not the same as all the other stuff we've done where you're going on to a website that sells blanks and buying

the only color that's in stock and putting a logo on it. It was a lot more in depth and involved in that. And the result is that it's stuff that we truly love because we literally picked every single thing about it. That's great. I've seen the stuff as well and can confirm that it is the coolest stuff. I'm so excited. You've been very instrumental in the design of it. That's the other thing about it is like we have to we have to go with a little bit more quantities of these things because we're like literally getting the fabric dyed. So it's, we send them to all of our design board of people whose style that we trust.

And then we just like cross our fingers. And we're, I mean, it's going to be awesome. Can't wait. It's going to be great. So yes, don't call it a merch drop, but it's coming soon. That, where I'm going to use that quote. Don't call it a merge drop. Don't call it a comeback.

Don't call it a merch drop. Wonderful. Well, the second question was, was moving to Ben based on triathlon. in any way. Maybe a little personal, but just curious. Yes. Hugely, I would say 90% of which. A few different factors.

Obviously, like, the training environment here is fantastic. The pool is fantastic. Where we were living before, the pool was just, like, kind of permanently closed. And then friends. Coffee, restaurants, climate, trails. Yeah. So lots of things. We, like, one of the things we knew we needed to have was trail access basically from the door.

You know, I need to be a lot of things. like under five minutes of asphalt running before we're at a trail just to make sure like as we're, it sounds dumb to say as we're getting older, but got a lot of miles on our bodies at this point and running on soft surfaces is super important. Yeah, that's great. I think I kind of knew that, but that's the answer to your question, Rolando. And then finishes by saying, you guys are awesome and your content is amazing. I admire the friendship that you guys have amongst yourselves. Thanks for letting us be a part of it. Best Rolando from the Windy City, the best from the Midwest.

We're glad you're part of it too, Alondo. Yeah, thanks, man. Next question is from Steve. Steve says, Hey, guys, with hot temps approaching, in some places it's already hot. I wanted to see your thoughts on training in the heat. I recently did a tempo workout when it was in the 90s and humid and it was a struggle.

While I was able to hit my heart rate zones, my paces were way off. In that type of situation, do you opt for the tread time? mill, I have one, or should I run outside? Also, congrats Eric on the second place finish in LA this weekend. Sorry for encouraging Nick to trill you with the crying filter. It was just too freaking funny. Good luck in Chattanooga. So this was before you race. Yeah. No, you're 100% right on. Like humidity will definitely increase your heart rate at the same pace and everything. And that's

like a thing that people struggle with when they go to Kona, I have heard, is that you need to You need to really adapt your thinking and everything for if you're like going based off a heart rate and what paces you can actually run in your effort and all that. I think that shying away from the heat always and choosing the treadmill is not necessarily the best because like Eric said, races are often in humid hot situations. And the only way to be able to get through those is to train in the environment. So I would just lower your expectations of paces. and I think over time you'll notice like through the summer you will be able to run faster at a certain heart rate in the same conditions. You'll just get adapted to it. Your body does learn how to deal with the conditions and gets used to them the more you do it.

Yeah. I would probably do some sort of like a 50-50 plan where I would try to do a couple of my, do more of my easy runs in the heat to just get your body used to that temperature and then do like maybe one hard run workout indoors and one hard run. run workout outdoors. That's true. Just so you like get the adaptation of like doing being able to actually run faster. Yeah. Or in the morning. Like often when we're training summer super hot, we'll do our hard runs first thing. And then it's getting hot towards the end of it, but you're not doing it in the middle of the day when it's, it's worst temps. Yeah. The things that popped into my head were a couple things. First of all, there is, if you're going to race in the heat, like you were saying, it would be smart to start to get acclimated.

to the heat because your body gets better or worse at running in the heat, depending on how much you do it. But that also probably matters where in your training you are. Like if it's a week before the race, I don't think running in the heat is going to be a good idea, right? That's just going to tire you out more. Yeah, it's too late. But hopefully by the time you're racing, you've already done it a lot, so it's not as hard. Right. So there's that part of it. But then there's, I also have friends who are pure runners who they love running in the heat because of it. Because of this exact thing. Because at that same heart rate intensity,

they aren't beating up their legs as much. So they're working hard and... Freaking ultra runners. Yeah, but I'm guessing they're not talking about hard workouts. They're not doing hard workouts. They're not doing hard workouts. They're doing easier workouts. And I think, I don't want to say something that's not correct,

but it has some effect on your blood plasma training in the heat. That has a positive effect. It's similar to like altitude, right? where it maybe makes your blood thinner or thicker. I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm sure some exercise physiologists out there is screaming at their phone right now. Dusty is probably screaming at their speakers.

But there is some positive to training in the heat, even if you aren't racing in the heat. It has some positive effect on you. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Similar to doing a heat protocol with like a hot tub or a sauna. Exactly. Or altitude tent.

something like that, right? Like, it's better, even for racing at sea level. Yeah. So there you go. Hopefully that gives you some information, at least to go off and Google and find some even more accurate information. But that's our actual right information. That's our anecdotal thing there.

And then this is a great question. I like this a lot because this represents a lot of us normal people. What's up? Eric, Paula, Nick, and Flynn. Thank God I'm in front of Flynn. I'm racing Victoria 70.3. two weeks. When the run course is 90% quote unquote hard packed dirt. Would you recommend super shoes, aka pillow shoes, or regular lightweight shoes? I've run in both so nothing new on race day,

but curious what will get the most bang for my buck on dirt. And now here's the part that I find really relevant. For reference, I'm hoping to run at about a 7.30 per mile pace. Love you guys and congrats to Eric on L.A. Try. I was volunteering with a pair of athletes entering and exiting the water. Awesome. Well, thank you for that, first of all. That's so awesome. Yeah. I think it would, I would take your super shoes out and run on some dirt with them just to see if it feels like you're slipping like crazy. But in terms of like the stability of them, the course in Victoria is definitely fine for, in terms of like turns and stuff wearing super shoes. I think it would just come down to like traction of your particular shoe. Yeah, there's, I run the Thetis Lake Loop or Elk Lake Loop like a billion times. And for the most part, it's,

it's pretty much straight stretches of dirt. There's one section that's a little bit curvy where a shoe like a Nike vaporfly might be a little bit unstable because those are unstable to begin with. But for the most part, like Eric said, it's pretty straight. Yeah.

And yeah, I would definitely do it as long as you don't feel like you're slipping like crazy. Yeah, I think the super shoe is going to be faster 10 out of 10 times, no matter what, even if you're on that surface. And it is hard-packed dirt. It's not like mushy sand or, It's not single track. It's not like an Xtera or something. It's a beautiful run course. I love, love that race.

Probably, yeah, one of the coolest. And for people who don't know, the reason this is an issue at all is because these super shoes are, as we call them, pillow shoes, they have this carbon plate in them, and they have a huge stack height. So they're much higher off the ground than most running shoes. And also, most of them happen to be very narrow. So if you have unstable terrain or there's a lot of tight turns, people get a little. little scare that they're going to twist their ankle or not have the stability they want. But it sounds like you're thinking, even though it is 90% packed dirt, still worth it to take

advantage of all the extra speed that they give you. I think so. And even like at 7.30 per mile too? That's, that was my question too. Yeah, I would say even more so because you're probably having like less like toe off versus somebody who's running six minutes per mile. Yeah. So I think, yeah, definitely.

Even just like for the leg preservation. being less fatigue. Yeah, I think, I hear a lot of people say, oh, these super shoes, they're designed for people running like 2.30, 245 marathons and faster, you know, like even faster than that. But I have found that, and I run in the Sokney endorphin pros, I have found that even me running way slower than that, I, you know, I would love to run a 70.3 run at 730 pace,

and I find that it makes me way faster, and I feel way less fatigue. My legs feel way less fatigued at the end. So I definitely think 7.30 pace would be worth it to use these shoes, personally. Yeah. Yeah, good luck. And our last question, which we're going to spend a little bit of time on here, is Eric, Paula, and Nick.

I was looking at some of the results over the past weekend and saw that several people doubled back from the Iron Man World Championship to do 70.3s in either Chattanooga or Samarant. and it got me thinking, how long does it take professionals to recover from iron and half iron distance races? You see high-level marathoners race maybe four times a year, yet long-distance triathletes bounce back and race a couple of weeks later. How does that work? Thanks much, Nick. So the reason I think this is so interesting is because there's a lot of, as an age group,

I've seen a lot of how much I should recover after a 70.3 or a full Iron Man. and then we see you guys race back-to-back weekends really well. And it's like, wait a second. So either are they not racing as hard as they can both times or are they just made a different stuff? Or are they dying on the inside halfway through that second week race?

So what's it like for you guys? I mean, how much do you think about this when you're choosing your schedule? I definitely think about it a lot. And I think it is a different person to person. Some people can back up and do an iron Iron Man two weeks apart and some people need two months in between. And, you know, it's not entirely just based on how much you train or what your total overall

volume is, but my guess, my feeling is like that's probably one of the two biggest factors. It's like, what is your normal weekly volume, how young are you, and probably like how well did that first one go and how deep were you ultimately able to go? Because for me, like the biggest factor of whether or not I'm going to be super sore a few days after a race is like how fast was I able to run, whether as a sprint distance, an Olympic distance, a 70.3, and we haven't done Iron Man, obviously. But that is, if you just, if you weren't feeling very good on that, on that first one, you don't have the ability to, like, hurt your body as much as you maybe otherwise would have been able to. It's funny because I feel like

I have, sometimes I've read the opposite, which is that when you're feeling really good, that means you've kind of paced it well and you don't need as much time to recover even though maybe you have gone harder I've heard that if you kind of blow up and then you have to kind of suffer through the rest of the race that's what takes long time to recover

is that not been your experience really yeah well there's yeah I guess there's a difference between you blew up and you just felt like crap to begin with and where that yeah if you blew up definitely like I'm super super sore right now after Chattanooga and I went out a little too hard on the run

and just, you know, try to get home. Versus Oceanside, I ran three minutes faster and felt pretty good the whole way and was not as tired. So yes to that, but I'm kind of referring more to just like I felt flat the whole day. I see. And what about, so you're talking about like leg soreness.

What about like that like kind of intangible overall fatigue? Yeah, just like body fatigue. Yeah. Do you think that's the same thing? If you can really dig deep and have a great race and run really fast and hold high power, that deep fatigue is even higher? Or do you feel more fatigue relatively from a race

that you didn't feel good the whole time that you had to suffer through the whole thing? You definitely feel some emotional fatigue from the one you had to suffer the whole way through and question whether you want to race ever again, let alone in two weeks from a home. I think that's the biggest part. I mean, I think that's totally valid.

Yeah, I agree. Man, that whole week last week, that was an emotional roller coaster wreck of a week. And by the end of that race, it was not happiness. It was not fatigue. It was relief that it was over and just getting through it for me anyway. So the last thing I wanted to do was turn around and do another race. Yeah. Wow, I'm positive. No, no, it's fair. It's hard stuff. It's not like we go show up to races and people massage our backs the whole time. It's extremely hard. This is why, you know, not everyone does it. This is why there's so many DNFs and DNSes, right?

because it's not easy. You pay for the race and then you still have to race it yourself. Right. I will say, though, that I think Eric is a lot better at dealing with the stress around races than I am. And that's why he's racing more than me. Like, he did a lay try. He's doing escape from Alcatraz and I'm not because I finished that week and I was just like popped from all the stress. And Eric has a much more level head about everything and deals with it better.

Yeah, but I think your seventh was better than my second. I just, I just think it was. Anyway. I don't know. You have this amazing ability. It's like part of your process to get to get really worked up. And I feel like that like triggers you into just being able to do insane things. Like we'll go out to like start a bike workout.

And I'm like in a great mood and like excited about it. And Paul is like, I think I'm going to quit triathlon today. And I'm like, oh shit. Okay. Hold on. Let's try to fix this. And then I'm like, you know, dialed up to 11. emergency mode trying to just like save the day.

And then she just like flicks the switch. It's like, fine. No, we're doing it. And then she goes and just destroys some it. And I'm like just an emotional wreck trying to get my shit together for like the whole rest of the day. So I don't know what's better. It is true. Paula, you go from one side to the other like so fast. It's amazing how you can be like, I don't want to do this.

And it's like, okay, never mind. I'm going to win this race. Like kind of what happened last week, I guess. Well, maybe you never got quite to that point and Chattanooga. I have not wanting to do it. Oh, I did. I didn't believe me. I got to that point.

Another thing that happened that race week is we had a lot of bike issues. Like, I forgot a cassette, which is so dumb of me. And cassettes are impossible to find. And Eric cracked his disc in L.A. on one of the potholes. So we had to get a new disc. And then I had an issue with my saddle. Had to get that tire, a new tire put on that new disc. Yeah, we just had like stuff that you don't necessarily like see on the social media,

but it takes a lot of mental stress to deal with it. And we are so grateful for Zip and Tram, who sent us stuff overnight when we needed a new stuff. And they like, we felt so dumb asking, but they were just like, oh, that's our job. Here's your new cassette. Oh, my gosh. That was insane. Paula called like 15 different bike shops all around Chattanooga. Not a single one had any iteration of Zip 12 speed road cassette.

Not a force. Yeah, SRAM. Not a force, not a red, not a anything at all. Wow. And we actually did, we borrowed a cassette from a local for one ride just to get a course preview in. And I also want to do a quick shout out to Flora Duffy because I also texted her in a panic. And I was like, can you please bring me a cassette? I don't have a cassette.

Just in case I can't get one. And she did. She brought me a backup. Wow. That's really nice of her. And I didn't need it. And then she wasn't able to race, unfortunately. Yeah, that was such a bummer.

I was looking forward to actually racing her. Yeah, would that have been a first? Did you guys ever race ITU together? Oh, lots of ITU together. We both raced in the 2012 Olympics, actually, together. We go back a long way. Well, we still haven't really answered this question, though. So, like, Eric, how long does it take for you to recover?

Totally depends. That was the answer, the long, roundabout way to answer that question, I think, totally depends on you and the conditions of the race. And also what you do immediately after the race. If you're pretty diligent about, like, I think if Eric knows he has a race the following weekend, he'll cross the finish line, try to get a protein shake, try to get his legs up, not spend a bunch of time walking around versus if you have no race on the calendar for another four months, that doesn't matter as much.

So I think you can directly impact right after when your muscles are the most sore and tired, how quickly you recover. Yeah. I also think that traveling is so bad for your body and sitting on an airplane for like eight hours after a racing is potentially worse than the race itself. So if there's any way you can like... Teleport. Strategically travel so that it's like two days later. I don't know.

It's so hard because we felt, I felt kind of okay after the race and then after traveling all the way from the East Coast, I felt worse today. Yeah, your travel days are just so long too. I'm lucky I get to fly right into LAX and then I'm 20 minutes. from there. You guys have to always connect and somehow get a ride from Redmond to bend. And it's like the extreme time changes too. We've been to the East Coast three times already this season. And it's just so it's stacking up that fatigue. If it's a, maybe you can do a little bit better with these back-to-back races if you only have like a one hour time change. You know, like I don't know. Right. Well, what's the next race for you guys? Eric, escape from

Malcatraz and two weekends, right? Yep. And then Paula, is it, do you know yet? Is it the Edmonton race? Well, I'm doing a secret race first, but I'm not going to announce it yet. Really? Because it's really exciting. Oh, my gosh.

And it requires Eric to do something first for me. Are you racing to the donut store? That sounds like you're, I've never seen you're so excited about a race before. I know. It's a true race. It's a true competitive race. It's in Canada. And here's a hint.

Here's a hint. It is not a triathlon. But I got, anyway, that's all I'm going to say about it. That's end of June. And then I'm going to, my next triathlon will be the PTO championships in Edmonton. I sort of thought about doing another race, but the way that that last week went mentally for me, I just need to focus on training, go into a race healthy and fit. And I think that'll improve my overall outlook and process leading into the race and hopefully lead to a better outcome.

So I am going to just wait to Leibonton. That's such a big race for me. It's like in my hometown and the prize money is insane. And if I can have a good one there, that would be mean more than any race I would do between now and then. That's awesome. We can keep Flynn on the primo dog food plan. That's good. Yeah.

Flynn eats healthier than most people in America, I feel like. The freaking salmon and the duck, man. It's adding up. That's crazy. Well, those were all our questions. We hope you guys liked it. Once again, you can send all questions into that triathlon life brand at gmail.com. I am heading to Telly Ride tomorrow to represent the film that Eric and I made called Controlled Burn.

It got into the Telly Ride Film Festival, as we said last weekend. So exciting. So unfortunately, Eric's not going to be able to be there. But if you're there, if somehow the Venn diagram of people going to Mountain Film and Telly Ride and T.T.L. Nash, if there's anyone in between. Somebody actually reached out to me and asked if I wanted to go for a bike ride. Oh, wow. Oh, I know you'll be there like talking, giving a talk.

and the thing would you want to go for a bike ride. I was like, oh, I'm so sorry, but I... Not going to make it. Maybe Eric should go. Let's just buy a flight tonight. I feel so bad. I mean, if I wasn't doing Alcatraz, it would be no problem. It's just, it's, there's so many connections and so much, would not be training.

Yeah. Yeah, the reason is more because of Alcatraz, not because it's my birthday on Thursday. Right, right, right. That's not the reason. I was there for your birthday last year, Paula. I know, Nick. I was, here's a little thing. thing I do on airplanes actually when I'm like super bored. You can go to your photos and sort by

like year, like, year, and I go back by year and I'm like, what was I doing on this day last year? Yeah, fun. It's such a blast from the past. Sometimes it's like kind of sad because you're like, oh, I wish I was in that time again. But last year I saw a picture of you and my birthday cake and Flynn. Oh, it was so fun. It was so nice. Filming controlled burn. Yeah, we were filming controlled burn. So a full year later, you're in the film fest. Yeah, we're in the film fest, so crazy. Wow, that is crazy. So, Eric, I'm going to be introducing the film twice

on Friday at 1 p.m. and Monday at 9 a.m. at a big theater. So I'm going to be talking about you and introducing the film talking about a bit, and then they're playing this ski mountaineering film. That's amazing. Yeah,

so it'll be really cool. The dream. Yeah. We're opening for a ski film. Yeah. I mean, just like... It's like our band, our band's going to make it, Eric. Yeah. So if you're in Tellyride, definitely, I mean, if you reach out on Instagram, I'd love to say hi to you and come to the screening.

That would be really fun. But we'll be back next week with more questions. Well, hopefully we'll be back next week. We're going to have to figure out how to do that. But we really appreciate all you guys writing in and sticking around. Do you guys have any final words? I just quickly googled flights from Redmond to wherever this

thing is and it's like 16 hours of travel, 19 hours of travel, 22 hours of travel. Yeah. A thousand dollars, two thousand dollars. Well, you'd fly into Grand Junction. That's where you'd fly into Taylor. Here's one that has one stop in Denver for $2,000. How bad do we want to go? Not $2,000 bad. No. Okay. You want to know the budget?

The flight to the film festival is eclipsing the budget. It is doable, though, I will say. Okay, well, anyway, we can talk about this offline here. Yeah, yeah, cool. Thanks for, thanks for hanging out and listening, everybody. Thanks. Thanks, guys. See you.