That Triathlon Life Podcast - Eric wins his first 50k Trail Ultramarathon, incorporating weight lifting into triathlon training, and more!

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

This week, we all huddled around the mics in Bend, OR, and got an epic race recap from Eric's first 50k trail ultramarathon. After we explored the nitty-gritty of what it took for Eric to make it to the finish, we got to answering some listener-submitted triathlon questions. This week we talked about:Incorporating weight training into triathlon trainingHow TTL takes photos on runs, and tips on how to improveUsing insoles while runningPacing the swim start when adrenaline takes overA big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hello everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Finlay. I'm Eric Lagerstrom. I'm Nick Goldston. We're all in the same room right now. Eric and Nick just raced yesterday at the Run the Rock Trail Ultramarathon. Well, some of us did an ultramarathon. Nick did a 21k. Eric did a 50k. And anyway, we talk about those things. And then we also answer your questions that people send in every week. And we'll get to some of those at the end of this podcast. But we're glad you're here. And let's be. Let's dive into it. I do think that all sorts of running events fit under the multi-sport banner. So I feel like we were allowed to talk about this a little bit. And it was a really exciting thing for both Nick and I. Smith Rock, Nick is one of your favorite places on Earth.

Yeah, for sure. You keep telling me? Yes, yes, absolutely. And for Paula and I, it's right in our backyard. So it was a logical, you know, first thing for me to try out the long-distance running thing and gave me something to focus on and be excited about the last couple months. If you do happen to be new here, Paul and I are both professional track. athletes. Nick is a professional musician, great friend, amateur triathlete, pretty decent one.

And he sort of, he brings into this podcast a little bit. He helps it keep going. You may, you keep all on eye from getting an argument and, and ask some questions that it would necessarily necessarily occur to us to elaborate on. So I think we have a good balance, but that's what you're in for. Some triathlon skewed content here. Yeah. And speaking of triathlon skewed content, the amount of triathletes that were at this trail race, I couldn't believe. Wild. I struck up conversation with someone. They had some kind of triathlon background themselves. Do you feel like this often happens where the triathlon, like something about the maybe rigidity that triathlon has?

It's also attractive in some way of this like very focused and planned way you can do things eventually leads to in a lot of people this feeling like, want to do trail ultras. My feeling is that if you get into triathlon in the first place, you're a little bit curious about pushing yourself and trying new things that are scary. And at some point in time, you want to try other things too. You know, like a triathlon can be one challenge, trail run could be a challenge, a mountain bike thing, a hike, you know, anything that is, you don't know if you can complete it. And I think that's how people ultimately get into triathlon.

It sounds like a big challenge. Yeah. And when you, I mean, when you were in triathlon, when you were. racing 70.3s, did the idea of doing a 50K on the trails, was that attractive to you or is that something that kind of became more attractive in recent years? I feel like I've said for a long time that I would much prefer to do, like if I was going to do a marathon ever or some sort of long thing, I would prefer it to be on trails. But the popularity of trail running, I feel like mainstream has only come on in the last few years, even in 2019, 18 pre-COVID. It wasn't the big thing

that it is now. So it was a what just wasn't his top of mind, but I definitely, I've always loved running on trails. So this has been a natural thing for me to play around with. Paula, did you run on trails before you met Eric too? Because as long as you've known Eric, way before

trail running became popular, I saw you running on gravel roads, for example. Yeah, I was trying to run on soft surfaces, so trails are under that category. Feels like a lot of triathlon pros do that. I've noticed that. Is that something that you always did and everyone always did? Or do you feel like now that's coming around and other pros are also doing that? I think it's pretty well known that running on soft surfaces prevents

injuries. Yeah, this is why Boulder is so popular. They have so many dirt roads that are nice and soft. It's not the way that you see maybe UTMB trail being all technical and stuff. It's more just minimizing the pounding on your body and running on soft stuff. Right, right. Okay, so let's talk about race morning. Last week we were talking about how confident you were about the race and potentially looking at breaking the course record. Race morning, did you think, okay, I'm on track for however good of a race I can have, I'm on track for? Or were there some kind of complications? Prior to the race even starting or in the race. Prior to the race starting, I still had no idea. I still assumed that there were a couple of guys who had like a good ranking on this, you know,

trail ranking website ultra signup.com and I figured maybe we'd all be together for the first 15K or something like that and I would get a feel for it and suss it out and see how the pace was going. Yeah. Okay. So race actually starts and right away Paul and I are watching you and we're expecting you to be in the front but right away some there were some kids that were out in front of you. Yeah. Did you think uh-oh or did you think go ahead do your thing? I'll catch you. you later. Yeah. One of them looked to be not,

it wasn't given me elite runner vibes. The other one looked kind of serious. But they also were not locals and made a couple of wrong turns immediately. We were like... Wait, really? Where did this happen? To run down immediately. They

weren't aware of like running down that ridiculously steep decline. And then also, you know, you make a right while you're still going down that gravel. road and they thought they were going to go straight onto the single track there. So it was just, it wasn't marked incredibly well just for this opening thing because they'd prioritized marking the rest of the course and you ran that part that we started on both directions. But anyway, we were like yelling at them from the back.

Like, left. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's what you said that he was like almost wiping out trying to turn. I see. Yeah. But, you know, it's just one thing that my sister told me the night before the race is like stuff is going to happen slow and don't, you know, if you feel bad at one point in time, you could feel great five miles later and that's just the way it is. So I definitely was I was trying to

not be in that oh man, I need to close down this gap or I need to do something about this now. Even if somebody is two minutes ahead of you, 10K into the race, you have so much time to work with that just calm down. So you weren't worried at all? No, I just, it was, I was happy to not be in the front at that point, to be, to be honest. And yeah. And did you, did any part of you, especially for people who don't know the course, which I imagine is almost everybody, the first thing you do after running into the park, which is like five minutes of running, first thing you do after that is run straight up a trail called Misery Ridge, which is super steep and very exposed.

The exposed part is kind of irrelevant, but it's super steep. Did any part of you think, all right, guys, you set the pace and I'll just try to hang? Or did you say, nope, I got to do it. I'm going to do no matter what pace they're doing. Yeah, I felt pretty locked in just because I did so much training on that exact hill, a week before that I felt like I knew what I was capable of running it, how my effort should feel. And I just, they were there.

And then I ended up passing them about halfway up to climb and stayed on my pace. And over the top of that, it's about a seven and a half minute effort. I think I had 20 seconds on second place. And I just tried to focus on the same sort of pace and effort that I did in that workout a week earlier and roll with it like that. So yeah, much more like internal effort. And the course record is legit. A lot of guys have tried to get it.

It was held by Mario Mendoza, who's from what I gathered from his Instagram, it's like nine-time U.S. trail running national champion and has had some great results. So it was a fast time. So about four and a half miles in, Paula and I are standing there because Paula has your vest with bottles in it,

which you chose to not have for the first four and a half miles for obvious reasons. No real need for that, especially on the steep stuff. Yeah. Only going to get in the way. So Paula and I are there, and we were with your friend Taylor, and he got a split to second place. And at that point, you were about a minute ahead of that, of second place. Yeah, I wasn't really, at this point, I felt like I probably wasn't going to see anybody anymore,

and I was more checking in mentally with the course record. times that I'd written down on my arm what approximately the guy who had the course record where he'd come through aid station number one, A station number two, three, et cetera. And at this point, I was about two minutes already. 33 minutes was the goal for it to hit A station one and I was at 35 minutes. And Paula, we, we, I say we, but I shortly after started my race. So did you know at any point where Eric was compared to the course record, or did you only know when we were there waiting for him at the end? No, I didn't know, but I was using that as a gauge to time my own tempo run.

Oh, got it. So you believed. No, I was just like, okay, I should be back by 1041 at least, maybe 10.30 just in case. So it was helpful for me to just know approximately how fast he was going to run. But when I got back from my run, you were just for. finishing. So I like, I saw you finish. Right. Which was good timing. And then like, how, how close was that? I was like running to the van and you were running up the hill. Oh. Okay. So perfect. And I thought you were going to be a bit slower. Like you ran a fast time.

So I was timing it out with like a 10 minute buffer to you. So wait, when I saw you in the middle of the race. I hadn't started yet. I was like warming up. Okay. Okay. So basically I ran for the entire time you were running. That's great. That's great. Probably probably faster too. And I was just like, easy run for you. No, I did a hard run, but it was all flat and on pavement and windy hell out there. Yeah, yeah. We didn't get much wind. Was it windy back there for you, Eric?

It was windy on the backside of the course. Yeah. I mean, wind when you're running on a flat road doing a tempo run is much more noticeable. Yeah. And annoying. Enjoying a trail run in the woods. It's kind of nice, actually. If you're enjoying a trail on.

Yeah, it was really cold out. Yeah, it was cold. But I never got cold. Eric, you never got cold either. Nope. No. Did you have gloves? I did have gloves.

I mean, my forearms felt a little cold because I just went with a light t-shirt, but I absolutely would not have wanted to wear anything heavier. Okay, so something I think was kind of funny is you did have these splits written on your forearm with where you needed to be aware, but something happened to your watch that prevented you from being able to accurately read those. What happened? So after Aide Station 1, you sort of double back on the course for a couple miles. And so we're passing people.

There's two-way traffic. And I'm seeing people in, hey, good job, good job. job, good job. And a few people went to give me a high five, which I accepted. And at some point in time, somebody gave me a high five and it paused my watch and I didn't realize just the button got bumped. So all of us... It's a solid high five. Yeah, it was a solid high five. So all of a sudden I realized my course record, timing situation is now not completely accurate and I'm having a little bit of a crisis. And you don't know for how long it's been paused for. It could have been five seconds.

Do you know now? I'm guessing it was a minute or less. Right. Because my finish time when I crossed was on my watch said 3.38. And I think my official finish time was like 339. Got it. So it ended up not being that long. But I was guessing it was about a minute.

But still, this was going to be my entertainment. Right. Really, during the run. Right, right. I thought there was like a very slim chance I could get the course record. But at any rate, I was going to just compare myself the whole time to it and give myself something to think about. Yeah, yeah. Right.

Okay. And now that's like out there. window. Okay. So you have never run a marathon before. You've never even like run a, how do I put this, a marathon distance in a training run, not at race effort. So this is way beyond that. You reached the marathon mark at one point. Did you, did you internalize that at all? No, I did not actually at all. No, you're just, you were just thinking about the full 50K. Yep. Okay. So at what point were you like, okay, this feels different than any run I've been on? Did that ever kind of come into your head?

It wasn't until probably 30K, 35K, where I started to get some very sharp pains and little muscles, little supporting hip muscles that I was like, okay. I think I'm okay energy-wise and I feel like my pace is okay, but it feels like muscles could just start to fail randomly and I could cramp and that was a concern for me. Just was I, you know, the nutrition strategy that I had, was that actually going to work with all the jostling?

was like in a balk and it seemed like I was paste appropriately, but I know you can't be generally too patient. People talk about that all the time with ultra stuff. And all the way up until the end, do you feel like your body felt mostly like what you expected it to feel like? I guess so. Yeah, I guess I didn't have a ton of expectation, but it felt, I guess the best case scenario. It felt like what I had imagined the best case scenario to be, where the last 20K, the last 15K is

going to be really like, ouch, I don't quite want to keep going, but energy was okay. I didn't, I didn't feel like I was bonking, but it was just a muscular, stay on top of my form, don't fall apart. And then running down, it's called Burma Pass, Burma Road is, what is that, like two kilometers of minus 19%. You know what sucks is the whole time? You can see how much further you have to know. You see the whole thing from the whole time. Right. So in my, On the one hand, I had treated the course of my mind just run really hard to the top of Burma Road because from there you've got this huge long downhill.

You're like coasting into the finish. Like I can keep my shit together from that point in. But then running down that was truly painful. Yeah. Like their hips were just killing me. I was audibly grunting out loud trying to just keep myself moving because all I wanted to do was like walk backwards down it, maybe. Or just sit down.

Like muscles were just screaming. So it wasn't like, it's quite the enjoyable, I'm just going to fly downhill experience that I was hoping for. But got to the bottom, ran really well the last like two kilometers before you have to climb back up out of the river. And that was my final goal was to not walk that final 200 meters at like 25%. Did you walk it the first time? Nope. No. I did no walking in the course with the exception of the final switch back up, Misery Ridge,

It's also like steps. Yeah, it's like aggressive steps. Yeah. Okay, so this also happens to be an almost identical, your finish time was almost identical to what you would expect a fast 70.3 time to be for you. Yeah. How did your body feel at the end compared to a 70.3?

Most sore I've ever been. Oh, yeah. More than a 70.3. Significantly more sore, just more time on feet. It was also colder. That adds to soreness. Yeah, yeah, that's true. And then what you and I were talking about, Nick,

even you were massively sore from your half marathon. And just there's nothing you can really do in training short of like aggressively running downhill and going after a KOM that involves some downhill to really stimulate this level of intensity running downhill. Like if you do hill repeats, you kind of like jog easy down or you walk down. But this, it was like truly running as fast as you could downhill. just destroying your muscles.

And that's not something you run into in a triathlon, generally speaking. Paula, you just said something about being cold and more sore. I don't think I've ever really put those together. Is that a thing when it's cold? If your muscles are colder, you get sore more easily? Yeah. Oh, wow. Like if they're tight and your whole body's not warm and you're carrying muscle fibers,

I guess I've never put that together. I feel so much usually better when it's cold, but I, in fact, did feel really sore after this. I wonder if that played into it. Could be. Yeah. Okay, so you're getting to the finish. We knew from one of the people that was doing video, because we had a couple of guys doing video there for you, that there was, you were very close to the course record. Yeah. So what I ended up doing because I didn't know exactly where I was after that high five incident. When I got to the second aid station, I lapped my watch and I did some quick math with the numbers on my arm to figure out how long it should take me to get from aid station two to aid station three,

which was another, whatever, 15 or 20K. And I knew it was going to be 46 minutes. And then I figured I could at least keep myself entertained and see how I did there. And I got to that aid station two minutes early. So at which point, I was like, well, I think I was about two minutes behind at the first and second aid station, but I'm not sure, but this bodes well. But I kind of thought my weakest point on the course would be the final climb. which came after aid station three,

from eight station three to four. And so I did the same thing again. I tried to just take the split and do some quick math, and I got to aid station four significantly faster than the split that I had lined up. So I actually ran the back half of the course really well. And at that point, I just got excited. Yeah.

So I was like, man, if I just keep this together and I don't cramp and I don't strain anything and I have to start walking, like it's going to be close it's going to be really close yeah and we knew it was close and when we saw someone that we thought was you and then realized it wasn't you that's when we were like oh boy it's going to be really close because we still don't see him coming up that last little bit there but then you came down that finishing shoot and did you see the time did you know when when did you know what was happening no actually they didn't they hadn't switched over the timer yet from your

half marathon. So I just saw a half marathon time up there. And I, I, you know, clicked my watch. And like, well, that is, that's the course record if my watch is correct. And it didn't stop for more than a minute. But I won't know. And but then the race director was there. I was like, wow, that was awesome. You got the course record. And that's when I, that's what I knew. And we were all there. We were all there to see it. We knew that you got it. And it was just an epic moment of first ultra, first place, course record. You know, I think was really missing, though, from the whole atmosphere was like someone on a microphone talking about it.

You're right. Because, like, everyone just assumed he was one of the half marathon people. Like, no one was really hyped because. Well, they thought I was Eric when I finished my half. They were from afar. They were like, oh, here comes. And then they're like, oh, no, no. No, like the two, like race organizers knew.

But just in general, the vibe wasn't like, oh, my God, here's the winner of 50s. Like, there should have been some kind of life. You're right. We were that. We were doing that. I guess. But it's like, This thing was grassroots, but it was like too far grassroots.

Like to a certain extent, you have to have a little bit of hype. And I don't know. You're right. There was no music even. And it was very much like, I like the trail running vibe because it was just the honor system. Like they said you had to park two miles away and there was a shuttle bus. And even though there was tons of parking at Smith Rock, people fully obeyed that and went and parked 2K away, 3K away, took the shuttle bus in.

After the race, there was like a burrito bar and it wasn't like, where's your ticket? or show me your race bib and I'll exit. Like, people are just fully trying to be being honest and there's like a trust thing. And I don't know, I just kind of like that feel. That's great. But the thing that was missing was like the excitement that you get from a 70.3, you're like, when there's people on the mic hyping it up and there's music and all this, like that, it was a little bit too sleepy.

Yeah. I wonder if there was any sort of thing where they couldn't do that because it was in a state park. Who knows? But that is true. I was imagining as I was trying to do this that somebody would be like, here he is or something, you know? Yeah, like that is what,

I mean, after you've been running for four hours and you did something amazing, that's definitely an important part of it for the experience. But again, you did a tiny race, and if you go to a bigger race, they'll obviously be a little more of that. Yeah.

But the most important thing was Heather Jackson was there. Sean Watkins was there. And we all knew. Like Taylor, who helped consult with me. Paula was there. Nick was there. All of my favorite people were there watching. And I got to, you know, we all knew that was special and got to give high fives and have hugs.

So that was, I didn't even honestly process the announcer thing at that point. So can we, so you got it. You got the course record. Epic, we're very stoked for you. Can we get some numbers on, on this course? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

How about, I've got it in kilometers. You've got it in miles. Yeah. So we'll go back and forth. Perfect. Okay, it was, this is ridiculous. I love this. You should post that.

49.99 kilometers. Ooh, that high five really cost you. That high five, dude. So I don't get a 50KPR on straw. I've heard around the world is what it is. I mean, GPS inaccuracy could be 10 meters over 50K. That's pretty accurate. Yeah.

I said that's amazingly accurate. Yeah. Especially since I'm like, okay, ready? Go, I guess. Yeah. You're right. Like, yeah, to have five meters back. You're right. That's a good point. Like, the course is pretty damn close to accurate.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. So 50K, it turns out to be 31.06 miles. Yep. Moving time, 338.05. Average pace, 422 per kilometer. So for people who are Strava, a fistionados like myself, we want to know average pace, but we also want to know the average grade adjusted pace. Okay. So average pace 422, average grade adjusted pace 3.5. And in miles, it's average pace 701 per mile and great adjusted pace, 615 per mile. And now keep in mind, this great adjusted pace is there are sections that are slowing you down not because of how steep they are, but because of how technical they are as well. So that great adjusted pace is soft compared to the effort that you'd actually have to put out. So it's even faster than that. Yeah.

I would say on the realm of Ultras, this is not highly technical, but there are some technical aspects. Oh, yeah, my average power, 307 watts. I don't know what that's about. I don't know where they got that, but yeah. And the most important thing that I'm sure everyone is waiting for is Strava's athlete intelligence beta analysis. Wow, you absolutely crushed it on this trail run. Setting personal best for the marathon 30K and longest run ever is seriously impressive. Your pace was way faster than your 30-day average and your heart rate was through the roof.

You really pushed yourself to the limit. The high relative effort score shows how hard you worked. the great training, you're clearly in fantastic shape. Why does this AI write like a fourth grade of trying to fill up a word count for an essay in an English class, it feels like. I think that's AI in a nutshell. I just disabled that feature. It was annoying me so much.

Oh, yeah. I think it's entertaining. I think it's pretty funny. But yes, it's I can't find quite the value in it yet. Got it. Got it. Got it. We'll give feedback later.

Yeah, got it. Got it. Yeah, so amazing. Amazing. And you were pretty limpy afterwards. which we saw the second place guy afterwards. As Eric and I were both dragging our lifeless bodies back to the van, this guy's gingerly jogging by us.

And we're like, isn't that the guy that got second? What are you doing, bro? He's like, oh, you're going to warm down. I'm like, no, you don't. I can confirm you do not. Yeah. We're going to go warm down with some cookies. And how do you feel today?

How does your body feel today? My hip was very, very sore, and I thought that could be a major problem, but it's gotten steadily better throughout the day. And you and I just did a dreamy mountain bike ride, which I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to do when I woke up this morning. So I was trending positively. And my last question for you

is try to put yourself in the mind of someone that listens to this podcast who loves triathlon potentially. Do you think this is something that is for triathletes? And if so, what kind of person do you think could enjoy something like this? I mean, I think, in my first gut reaction is anybody could enjoy something like this. You know, to temper your expectations,

depending on how much technical directional changing you do and you're running and do you have the ability to train on trails and get hilly stuff in. But if you just want to go out and do something that is going to push you, this could be for anybody. It's, what I have really enjoyed about it is it's opened up just a whole can of new questions and things. Like, how do I fuel this?

What are the aid stations like? How do you pay? it and etc. Like why Paula is loved the training for the TT so much. It's, oh man, there's just some new things. Like how do we do the aerodynamics? How do chain rings and all this stuff? And it's that is fun in the rush that you get.

I think when you start anything that's a little bit different or that you haven't done a whole bunch. Isn't that why like so often that's why we got into triathlon in the first place is this challenge and these questions and these big unanswered areas? I think so. So if you're into that, this is just a slightly different way to get that. rush. Yeah.

I would say that if you're not a mentally flexible or resilient person, like Paula said, there's a bunch of, oh, well, let's just go for it. You know, an Iron Man is very, you know exactly what you're going to get. There's going to be aid stations at very specific intervals. You know exactly what the nutrition is going to be. And if you kind of like the, well, you know, kind of figure it out as you go, then this could be your jam. Speaking of which, Paula, did this inspire you at all to do something like this?

Because I see a world where you could run a very fast marathon one day. I know this is not the same as that. But did this kind of thing pull you? I'm a contracted T-100 athletes, so I'm not even going to answer that question. Is that in the contract that you can't answer? Are we talking about Nick's race or no? Yeah, we can talk about my race real quick. Okay.

So Nick did the half marathon. Yes. Which I was, you know, there's many less unanswered questions there. But it was my first trail race. You didn't even need water. No, I did bring a little handheld thing, but I ended up only taking a sip from it after I had my gel, just because you need the water. Because you're like, oh, I have this anyway. I must take a sip.

But then when I was coming up to the last climb, I poured the water out because I just thought, well, this is not helping me. And the sloshing was kind of bugging me. Yeah. I was like, okay, no more sloshing. Poured it out. But the race was fantastic. I went in thinking I was going to be middle of the race in terms of results. And then right off the bat, I felt good and was in the top 10-ish.

And then within the first five minutes, I was in the top five, which was very motivating because I didn't see that as a possibility. And then going up Misery Ridge, we were putting a lot of time into the people behind us. We had kind of the five of us were slowly spreading apart. And then throughout the rest of the race, I think there was a pretty, big gap between us and the rest of the field, but stayed fifth and was having a battle with a guy in front of me. He was a really good dissender, and he would kind of pass me on the descents, and I'd slowly bring him back in on the flats and the climbs. And I love running in Smith Rock,

and I've run every inch of the race course. So I knew what was coming at all points, which I think maybe was a slight advantage. I knew how long the climbs were. I knew what the descents were going to be like. But like Eric said, after that first climb up Misery Ridge, which was steep and I probably overdid it a little bit because I was excited at being towards the front of the race, coming down the other side, my legs have never been so sore in a race. It just like, it was daggers. And it was a kind of pain that you're like, oh, this is, this is temporary. And at some point, soon, my legs are going to warm up and it'll be fine. But it never went away. The sense all really hurt. but the flask and the climbs felt okay,

which was, I don't know, just the opposite of which you imagine. You're like, looking forward to the descends to recover, but I was dreading every descent because of what my quads were going to feel like. You were the least prepared for that, actually. Yeah, so strangely. Not often we practice running fast downhills.

Yeah. Just to paint the picture of Nick's course, but Nick basically had all the most challenging parts of the 50K, missing the big loop that we did kind of out in the back, back zone. There was a lot more climbing in the 50K, but you had the steepest climbing and descending. And I'll say selfishly,

we had the most scenic part. I mean, what you had was beautiful back there, but as far as just, oh my God, beautiful. Yeah. You know, we were constantly running around that. Yeah. And then, yeah, I was able to, towards the end,

catch that guy who was in fourth, and then within a while to go, I put another minute into him. You just totally broke him. Yeah. Broke his spirit. I went by him and he was like, great battle, dude. I was like, the race isn't over yet.

And he's like, it's over. It's over. And then I also had the same thing with myself, excuse me, where I didn't want to walk that last part. Because I did walk part of it the first time we went up. I was just like, why am I running? I'm going walking speed. I'm just pantomiming or run.

And then was able to run up it and felt I was just really, I enjoyed the whole thing. I loved the whole thing. I was never waiting for it to finish. Crossing the line felt great, but there was not a lot of fanfare, like Paula was saying. And I didn't notice it until Paul said it, but I guess I am used to like the 70.3 big, they shout your name and- You are special. Yeah, exactly, which is nice.

I mean, I won't deny that it's nice. But I just felt very lucky to be running that and that nothing really hurt. And then I was happy that I got to see you finish. So the question of would we finish close to each other? Yes, we finished very close to each other, but that was more because Eric went so far below the time that we were expecting him to go. And you also outperformed what we thought. Yes, yes, that's right. I went fast, but definitely not fast enough to accommodate for your massively exceeding your expectations.

Yes, that's right. That's right. So I'm really stoked. And if I can just impart one thing is similarly how I asked Eric if he thinks triathletes would enjoy a trail 50K. I think if you are a 70.3 athlete or an Iron Man athlete, even a, like Olympic distance athlete, I can't imagine you would love doing something like this. Every time I bring someone trail running in L.A., I feel like they love it, or maybe they're lying to me, but they love it.

And this is not so different from that. I think it's a really fun distance to do it. It's not a crazy, I mean, what Eric did is crazy. A half marathon on the trails is doable, and it's kind of, I don't want to say bite size, but it's manageable for most triathletes that I think listen to this podcast, and it's so fun. Yeah. Do it.

And you get to see some cool stuff. I think that's the best part of trail running. You get to go out and see some really cool areas that would be very hard to get to on a hike, you know, just because you can cover ground a little more quickly. And it's a cool community. Like Paul was saying, the people are-vives are good. Are nice. 10 out of 10 vibes. Well, that's our first trail run.

Well, not trail race. Because Eric, you did a 5K trail race that you also won. But, yeah. Yeah, you're ranked 100% in this race series right now. Northwest Trail ranking system of some sort. Yep. 100%. Okay, great. Well, thank you very much, everyone, for following along on Eric's first ultra journey. We're so excited about where this is, oh, we, I am so excited about where this is going for Eric. This is such a cool start to this whole thing. We're going to move on to

questions now. Questions submitted by listeners. That's you. Thank you so much. Everyone listens to this podcast. And thank you so much to everyone who's a podcast supporter as well. You can submit questions to this podcast and become a podcast supporter at ThatTriathlonlife.com. There's a little podcast section there. You can go to there. But there's also a lot of other cool stuff on there that actually this week there's going to be some new stuff.

So keep your eyes peeled for that. That'll be great. Yep. Fresh drop coming this weekend. Fresh drop. The most incredible jackets. I don't know if we'll ever be able to top these things. But we did them last year.

They were in a really cool Heather Blue. This year they are in a charcoal, Heather. Men's have a little orange hit. Women's have a teal hit. Classic T.T.L colors. Then we also have a couple T-shirts that go with them. The women's T-shirt, Paul is wearing it right now. It's heavyweight.

It feels incredible. It's a T-shirt, but it's thick. It's, like, kind of perfect for winter months that are all coming. Like this with a vest or something. Super nice. And the collar has this kind of, like, cool fashion element to it. That's very thick. Yeah.

I'm a little bit jealous of the women's one. But the men's one is also awesome. It's just like a very classic. It's a heavy weight, but not that heavy with big orange TTR on the back. It's killer. That's going to be coming out this weekend. And so these jackets, like I said, if you saw the blue ones from last year, I really don't know if we'll ever be able to do these again. So if you want one of these, this is one thing I would highly recommend jumping on quick.

And this week we are still doing our podcast supporter giveaway. And we randomly pick a podcast supporter of our many beloved podcast supporters. And this week, Sebastian Sasu, you are our winner. You're our guy. You're our guy. You're going to get a swim cap. However, for everyone listening, this is the time to become a podcast supporter if you're not already won.

Because for the next few weeks, we are going to up it big time with the award, we're going to call it. Are we saying what it is? Well, yeah, I'll just give you a hint. Orca sent us some stuff to give away at our TTL cheer tent in Vegas. It tragically did not make it in time. So we have got some next level stuff that we're going to still give away. So there's a lot of reasons to be a podcast supporter.

One is that you're showing that you are appreciative of what we do here. We also have podcast supporter exclusive content that we occasionally send out at least once a month. and there's some giveaways like this, and then there's these elevated giveaways. So we hope that you'll at least consider becoming a podcast supporter. Okay, first question of the week here is from Mark. Love the show. You've talked before about walking that tightrope between heavy training and complete burnout.

So when do you squeeze in time to lift things other than a bike or goggles? I love goggles. How do you approach weight training without ending up so sore that you're waddling through transition like it's your second marathon. Do you go hard in the off season or keep it light so you don't end up bench pressing your way out of a trisuit, Mark? I feel like this rarely a concern, but do you have ideas? I have some personal thoughts about this, but do you have thoughts about how to gauge, how to slowly get into this? Into weight training? I don't want to say slowly get into it, but how to do it properly so that you're

not compromising your training. It is really hard to integrate it because if you do it the night before like on an easy day, then the next day is obviously going to be hard and then you're a little bit tired from the weight training. So it is tricky to fit in. I think the ideal way is to do it at the end of a harder training day, like after your hard run or after your long run. And then the next day, if it's a little bit easier and you're sore, it doesn't matter so much. When I'm consistent about gym, I don't get sore as much. But if you're just like doing gym once a month when you remember when you have time to go to the gym, that's when you're going to get sore. So after a hiatus, that's, I can't walk the next day. But if I do it two or three times a week, consistently,

nothing crazy, but just like a predictable regular routine in the gym, then yeah, the soreness doesn't really happen. So then I could do it any day that I want. And we aren't that good about doing it, especially this year. I just feel like we even have a great option of where to go for it. But it's a thing you really have to make time for and make it a priority. And sometimes you just want to rest. instead of go to the gym, and sometimes that is the right call to do that. Or life stuff catches up to you. Like, I'd rather take Flynn for a walk in the woods, then go to the gym and stuff like that, you know. I feel like the point where we fell off the, I don't want to say it fell out the bandwagon, but like travel.

Travel makes it so hard. We were on a pretty good routine, yes, in the off season, and then we went to Ventura, and we didn't have easy access to a gym, and then we got back, and then we went to another race, and it became so hard to, like Paula said, get over that initial startup. soreness and make it a habit. The best thing is if you have a little gym set up at your house and then it's like 20 to 30 minutes, you all have that time immediately after a session or something. But yeah, some athletes love going to the gym and like lifting heavy and that's totally

fine. But I have not been injured all year and I have barely done any work gym. That's what makes it hard to find the motivation to do it where you're like, well, I haven't done it. I've been doing great. I'm not hurt. Why should I do it? Well, it does help in like longevity and maybe I'd be a little bit faster.

I don't know. There's things like there's things like that. But I also find if I'm injured running, which I haven't been for a long time, sometimes I'll like fill that hole of where I would be running by going to the gym and just to feel like I did a thing. So I used to be really guilty of that when I trained in Boulder because like the pool and the bike studio and gym was all in the same place. So when I couldn't run, I would just go to the gym and, yeah, do way too much gym stuff.

And it also kind of, you're also telling yourself, this is helping my running. This is going to make me be able to run faster. Yeah, and I do think it does in a lot of ways. I really love Aaron Carson's from Boulder, her style of gym work and having it not necessarily be overloaded, but just complementing the movements you're doing in triathlon to make you like a more robust injury-resistant athlete. So I've did a lot of that in my life, and I think it did help me at times. Okay, here's my pitch. Tell me what you guys think as professional athletes for amateurs. I think the idea of being so sore that you're not going to be able to train for four days is totally a realistic thing that happens when you haven't been doing weight training. And even doing like three sets of 10 air squats and three sets of 10 lunges is enough to make you so sore even when you're very fit on the bike. So why not that first day? Just take it so light. 10 minutes of light body weight work.

And then if you're not sore, four days later, just incrementally bringing it up. That way you're doing two things. One, you're not like scarring your body and scarring your mind from like, remember that last time I did it? I couldn't walk for four days. Okay, I'm just going to take it easy. And doing this thing maybe twice a week as you're ramping up,

you're also getting in the habit of this thing, which like this is the problem for so many of us. We don't. We're like once a month. They're like, oh, yeah, I'll try to get back into it today and then we don't do it. I think that makes a lot of sense. Something that occurred to me while you're saying this, I would highly recommend if you're going to do any sort of gym thing to at least start with a professional.

Someone who can say, that is incorrect back squat. That is incorrect form for a lunge even. Your knee is in the wrong spot and that's going to strain your joint. So I think at least starting and getting a program from somebody who can watch you do some stuff, what Paul and I did, and I feel really a lot better about that than watching a YouTube video on how to do it, whatever. Some people might disagree with me, but I think that if he's trying to find time to fit it in, I personally don't think it's worth missing a swim bike run to do a gym session when your time

is limited. You can get a lot of strength that's sport-specific in that workout, paddles on the swim, big gear on the bike, hills on the run. Like, those are all strength-building very sports-specific things. if you like gym work, that's one thing. But if you're just fitting it in because you feel like you have to, just know that I have not done gym in six months. Yeah, I totally agree.

Not in lieu of a swim biker run. But some people, like, I mean, a gym coach or a real big believer in it would argue that it is important to, like, maybe miss a session to fit that in. So it depends on you as a person and who you're working with. And also if you're aging, like, I think. Someone like my mom does gym work two or three times a week with a coach and she's super healthy. It just allows her to still do her activities as she's getting older and stay healthy. Yeah, that's a good point.

Are you focused on doing a really good triathlon in six months or being a well-rounded human for the next 20 years? That's a big philosophical discussion too, for sure. All right. We won't open that right now. Yeah. Next question here is from Ben. Hey Paul, Eric, and Flint. Oh, thanks. I was just wondering whether you guys use insoles for both running and cycling. And what are your thoughts on them? I personally have really low arches. And though I have not had a lot of foot issues, a lot of people have been telling me to wear insoles. P.S.S.I have been sporting Eric's Costelli long sleeve jersey and I absolutely love it. Happy winter training, Ben. I also have basically flat feet. Wait, so he says he hasn't had barely any foot issues, but he's hearing he should get insoles. That is such bullshit. Yes, that's, I love it.

Go on. Go on. I mean, there's like the orthotic, similar to gym. Some people are like, you need orthotics. You got a low arch. If you're not injured. Yeah. What do you?

I think that's totally okay. I personally wear insoles on my bike shoes because not for injury prevention reasons, but I think that if you can fill out your arch perfectly in your bike shoe, you're just maximizing the power transfer into the pedal. So there's no wasted energy when your arch is collapsing before the power goes to the shoe, to the puddle. Awesome. Yeah. That's an awesome thought.

I've never really considered that. But the fact that Paul has come up with that is pretty awesome. I didn't come up with it. It's the truth. This is real. That's so cool. So Specialized has inserts for bike shoes specifically. And you get the ones that are within your size range and you just cut them perfectly to

fit inside the size shoe that you are. And they have the blue inserts, the green inserts, and the red inserts. And they're all slightly different arch supports. I wear the blue inserts. Even when I wasn't wearing specialized shoes, I still used the specialized inserts. I think they're really good. They're obviously cycling specific. And they're not like a very aggressive, dangerous change that's going to injure you, they're completely safe and I think nothing but good to have a properly footing foot on or you're a properly fitting bike insert. Now running is a completely different situation. If you do have foot issues or are getting injured a lot, maybe an orthotic might help.

But I've personally been sent to a podiatrist so many times when I was a teenager and growing up in ITU to get these orthotics made. And it never fixed the problem. They always gave me blisters. They felt weird. On your arch? Yeah. Because they're like, they don't really fit properly in the running shoe.

This is just my personal experience. I think there's probably really well made orthotics and everything and they can help people. But for this person specifically who's never had an issue, just getting a properly fitting running shoe is all that matters. and letting your foot, it's the opposite of cycling. I think letting your foot naturally move when you're running is actually a good thing than kind of stiffening it into a cast where it can't collapse. Because pro-nation is really natural. Spitting wisdom right now, Paul.

Yeah, I know. Jeez. I feel very passionate. Get an amen. I'm very passionate about this because I've been thrown around to, like when you're growing up in the ITU stream, Trathlon Canada, I had so much support. It was amazing. But also, like, I was so young, I didn't even really know.

when to like draw the line. So when physios and p you know, massage and coaches were like, you're going to this footperson and they're building you in orthotic and this is what you run. And I just never liked them. And they're so expensive too to get made.

Yeah. My experience with orthotics is that I was going to a chiropractor after I was in a car accident, whatever. And he told me to get these like fancy orthotics. They were like $400. To help with your car accident. You know what? I was, he got me, okay?

That's the thing is when a person of authority is like telling you you need these things. They're like, a doctor is telling you this. You're like, yeah, I do need that's amazing. Well, thank you for trying to help me. Yes, exactly. So I got these orthotics. And also like one of them is, there's like a lift in them because my one of my legs is long. Yeah, that is also so ridiculous.

No, it's, anyway, so I tried running with these at first and absolutely, I couldn't run a mile in them because I would get these insane blisters on my arches. Same thing you were saying. And also, running shoes aren't designed for you to have a lift in them. So now your heel is sitting higher. It's a million things. Yeah, it's such a mess. I mean, just try different kinds of shoes. That's why they've got like supportive shoes, neutral shoes, flat shoes, super shoes, all the different shoes you could ever need.

Maybe back in the day, like 15 years ago, there weren't as many variety of options of running shoes with different support levels. There's every variety now. Now you can find anything you need. I'm still stuck on Paula's. arch and like we spend money on these carbon-plated shoes. And then, of course, you're losing power if you're flattening your arch every time. And the bike shoe. Yeah, in the bike shoe.

I just love it. I love that whole idea. It makes so much sense. Yeah. I mean, I did not make it up. No. But you've just brought it to my attention. And I'm sure you brought it to a lot of people's attention.

That is really cool. Eric, any thoughts on this? Is it basically like, if you're not getting injured, why would you mess with this? Yeah, I 100% agree with it. As I think Paula said, she did a great job explaining it. I don't need to summarize or re-say any of it. Fantastic. Next question here is from Lucas, from BC.

Hi, Eric, Paul, and Nick and Flynn. Thank you, Lucas, for the respect. I'm a pod subscriber and a longtime listener. I love everything you guys do. I'm curious about how you take pictures during your run workouts, and all three of us do this. I believe Nick has an iPhone Pro Max, which is a large iPhone,

and yet he manages to take some nice pictures for his Strava. Newer phones are quite big and quite hard to carry during run workouts. Lots of love from Vancouver. So three of us maybe have three different answers. Eric is the most legit, who sometimes will carry... Let me not speak for you. Eric, what do you do? I don't...

What do we have, like, iPhone 12s or something like that? iPhone 13s. We have the iPhone 13s. So I'm really not enamored with the photos that come out of it. And when I take pictures every single day on my nice mirrorless camera, looking at an iPhone picture, I just, I can't do it. So I have a couple of what one would call a point-and-shoot camera that I like to bring on runs.

And that's exactly what it sounds like. It's a little camera that's like probably the size of your cell phone, but that has a much nicer camera in it. But it's still portable. And I can care that either if I'm like trail running in my ultra-vests, backpack, whatever, or I can just handle it when I'm running with Paula. It's that or I've been using the DJI action camera lately, and that actually takes pretty darn good pictures.

Yeah. They're just wide, but it's a vibe. The point and shoot you have, do you feel comfortable sharing which one that is? I've got a couple of different ones. It's very popular now. But the RICO, GR, I have the original one. I think they're on like the three. And then I have Sony RX100 that is perpetually broken.

It's a little too fragile for running, I think. And Paula, you sometimes will shoot on your Fuji point and shoot. But when you're on a run and stuff, you still get good photos. What do you use for that? I wouldn't say I get good photos when I run. Sometimes I run with my phone. Mostly it's for, so just like Eric can find me if he needs or if I need help, I can contact someone. I feel a little bit like naked sometimes if I don't have my phone and I'm in the woods.

But if I'm doing a hard run or running somewhere popular, I don't take it just because I don't like holding it when I run, but I definitely can do it. I'll never hold it for a hard run, for a tempo run. I'll leave it in the car. but for easy runs or I'm just out with Flynn, I'll take it. Do you, Eric, do you bring a phone with you and runs? Sometimes for the music. Yeah, I like to have it for the music. But ideally, no.

I prefer not to have the weight and to have the potential look at it to take a picture and you see a text message you didn't want to see or something like that. So my dream scenario would be to, you know, like have an iPod shuffle. So I could have a little bit of music. But then just run. Yeah, bring back the shuffle. Bring back the shuffle. I actually Googled this before the Ultra because I kind of wanted to have music,

but I absolutely did not want to have my phone. Well, don't have watches now. My watch has music. Stores music. But you don't need to have your phone. You do not need to have your phone. And it works with their phones. Yeah, but we don't buy your brand of watch, Nick.

Well, soon enough, maybe they'll all have them. Maybe soon enough they'll all have it. I think Wahoo has music on their watches. No, you can control your phone from the watch. Yeah, that's right. So that is nice. I do do that. Like I can have my phone in my pocket and I just put it on Eric's sick playlist or whatever.

And then I can just like fast forward on the watch and I don't have to pull out the phone. That's nice. But it would be nice to have just no phone. Well, I never run without my phone. I always have my phone with me. If I'm on trail runs, it's in my little vest. And if I'm on regular runs, I have a running belt where I also have my house keys and sometimes I'll put a gel in there. And it's in the front.

I always have it in the front. And so I can pull it out very quickly and take it. a photo. You just have one of those like spandex running belts. It's super low profile. Yes, super low profile. So it sits underneath my t-shirt and so you can't really see it. Yeah.

On makes one. Oh, they do. Yeah. Like a better, like an ultra running belt based on. Can we get one of those? I'm curious. Yeah, I can get anything I want from on, you guys. How about that $1,700 puffy jacket?

Can we get one of those? Well, that isn't quite on, right? It's the crossover on. The On Louvre stuff. It's so beautiful. I mean, I would drain my credit. I could do it, but it would drain it. That would be fun.

Okay, I have one thing. Hopefully you both have an answer. Nick and Paula's your top iPhone photography tip. My top tip is always the same, which is... I know what it is. Filter the shit out of every picture. That's what I do. It's not my top tip, though.

Because that's just my look. Well, that's why these people are asking this question. How do you take such amazing pictures while you're running? It's that I filter the shit out of them. They are very, very edited. Very, very edited. You don't run on Mars? Yeah.

Yes, they're very edited. I'm super over the top with that. But that's not my tip. If you want to edit your photos, just like watch YouTube tutorials on photo editing and see what you like, see stylistically what you like. Nick, what photo pack do you use on Lightroom? I don't use. Just kidding.

Okay. But when I'm editing real photos, I do use Lightroom. And I'm much less aggressive with it. because the photos just look better out of the camera. And iPhone photos just don't, like you said, they're uninspiring when you work with a real sensor and a real camera with real lenses. Yeah.

But my top tip, which Eric definitely knows, is to when you pull your phone out of your pocket, wipe off the lens. That is the number one thing to get you crisper photos. Then you still got to worry about composition and a million other things. But if you have a smudgy lens,

it's just always like as bad. Game over before you start. Yes. So that's my tip. Paula. Well, a lot of the time, I'm just taking my phone to take pictures.

for Strava. I don't care if the picture is smudgy. Sometimes that adds like, you know, some little bit of character to it. That's fair. I don't know. I just think that like the Strava pictures, I have no,

I'm not trying to perfect them. They're kind of just showing what I was doing in the moment. They're not filtered. They're not perfect. They're definitely got a smudgy lens. Flynn is cute in it. That's kind of just what I don't know.

I feel like your photos usually do feel like they are clear and nice. But maybe that's a coincidence. Maybe you don't have a lot of body oil. that's getting on that. Yeah, I'm not like holding my phone by the lens. I'm like licking it. Donut fingers. Yeah, I don't sweat that much.

Yeah. Okay, so Paula's number one tip is to have an adorable dog and do cool shit always. No, my number one tip is to don't sweat it. Just take a picture. Okay. Yeah. Fair. Okay.

Take more. Yeah. Take more. My tip is when you're done your run, have your husband, like, stand there with his camera on burst mode and run by like five times with perfect form. Okay. So take your photographer. for a husband to take your photos.

Yeah, that's a good way to not have to run with your phone. Right. Round to someone who's running with their phone. Right. Okay. Last question here. There we go. This is from Brandon, from Michigan.

Who's 25, by the way. He wanted us to know. Hi, everyone. I'm in my first year of triathlon. I've almost completed the grind of going back through every podcast episode so far. Thank you. I hope it's not too much of a grind. Yeah, don't grind up.

Only if you like it. The grind is normally like a negative thing. Yeah. But also like triathlon training sometimes is a grind, right? All the time. Yeah. Well, and we still do it. It's like a rough thing with a positive outcome.

Yeah. Yes, that's right. Well, hopefully you're enjoying it. It's going to be a sad day when I catch up and only have one hour of content a week. My question is this. How does adrenaline affect the swim? I've signed up and participated in two triathlons, but the swim was canceled for both, and I haven't experienced this yet.

When I do a road running race, I find that I just have to forget my pacing for a while and let my adrenaline carry me much faster than I think I can go. But does the same happen with swimming? Should I expect to go a bit faster? Or will it just feel shorter? Or will I just suffer like I do in the pool regardless of the adrenaline rush? Thank you, Brandon from Michigan.

So interesting that he said that in running, he finds that he does let the adrenaline take him, and that's what he's found to be best for him. It's my experience, that is not what has been best for me. That is 100% what's best. Really? It's the advantage of running a road race. Like if I was when I ran cross country and university and any kind of road race, you go out in like a 305 per K with everybody and it feels like you're floating and you're not even trying.

Well, okay. But that's kind of race day magic that can carry you through the entire race. There's like a next level of adrenaline, I think, lasts for like two minutes at the beginning of a race. Maybe that's just me. But I thought that's what Brandon was referring to. Yeah, the adrenaline right at the start. That's why you go out hard. Okay.

But three hours into a marathon is that adrenaline? still carrying it through race. Well, I've never done a marathon. I just think that, like, the advantage of racing is that you do have this untapped energy and speed that you're going into without realizing it because of the hype and the excitement and you're tapered. And I think that you need to, like, fully capitalize that in a run race. It's not quite the same assuming, though, because it's hypoxic. You don't have unlimited air supply. It's not as fun to go out with thousands of people on a swim as it is with a run. Because, like, people can't see and there's contact and it's uncomfortable and sometimes you

just freak out. Whereas on a run, it's, like, cool to be carried by this crowd that are all setting off to do this thing. So, I don't know, I find it, like, a little bit different, but definitely you'll feel excitement and you'll go out hard no matter what, I think. I don't know. Yeah, that is true. There can be a point of where it's too much with swimming to the point.

to the point of where I've sometimes not taken a caffeine gel before a swim because I already feel so amped up. I know it's going to be crazy when I start that I don't want to perpetuate that almost like hyperventilation reaction that you have when you start to swim. Yeah, I love the feeling of going out hard in a running race with people.

I dread the feeling of going out hard in a triathlon on the swim. I'll say this. You guys are both strong swimmers. I'll say my experience as a amateur and a particularly weak swimmer is that in my first five, six, seven races, I decided and figured out that I had to actively fight against exactly what Brandon is talking about, because I would feel like a superhero for the first few minutes, and then it would catch up

with me so hard that I suffered for the rest of the swim. And when I, at the beginning of the swim, I'm like, chill out, just swim easy for the first five minutes and even easy, the adrenaline is screwing with what easy is. And I find that I swim better after that and don't hate the swim as much. That's my own personal experience. I think that's good advice for the swim for an age group race. Especially if maybe like Brandon's first year of triathlon also said he's not degradable swimmer.

Yeah. And especially also if it's like, I don't know what the start is like, but in Vegas, for example, you jumped in the water alone. Yes. You weren't fighting anyone. It's like, you guys are like, no, you have to stay with the group. Yeah. You know, we're like most of these starts now in triathlon, we rarely have these mass starts.

Or if you do it as a rolling start, you can kind of select where you are and, you know, find a less busy spot. I think you have a little bit more control over what you're doing at the start of the swim. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. That's a good question, though. Great question. Thank you.

Somehow we keep getting great questions that we have not been asked before. My mom said when I told her that we were doing this podcast. Can you say it in your mom's accent? I'm so bad at doing my mom. I don't know why I can't do my mom's accent. It's like I do a like a... Say it an Italian. A Jamaican lady or an Indian lady.

It's too bad because I could listen to your mom talk all day. Yes. She's great. She's captivating. Say it in Italian and people have to figure out what it is. Okay. So I shouldn't translate it? No.

She said, I don't believe that you have yet after five or six episodes. C, what's questions can't be on this sport that they're in five? Yeah. I agree. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, anyway, she agreed with Eric. She's like, how are you going to, how many questions can there be about triathlon? A lot. Nick doesn't even get to all of them that I send them. No, we don't. 142 podcasts going strong. No, what's funny is some people now they'll send in like a drawn out long question.

And then the next email is the same person with the same question in two sentences. They figure, they're trying to cheat the system. I'm like, I do read these. I do know you're the same person. I do know what the question is. Yeah. Just if it's like, the thing is, the same. specificity of this is my height and this is my current bike dimensions.

What should I get for my next bike dimensions? Like, that's too specific. Right. Yeah, we are trying to answer questions that multiple people can glean some benefit from. But we do appreciate everyone that sends in question. No, totally. I don't mean to discourage it. I'm just saying how you're more likely to get your question picked as if it's seven words.

And six of them are complimentary. I'm just kidding. I truly do read like every paragraph of every question and some weeks there's lots and some weeks there's not enough so don't be afraid to send them in and sometimes if we don't get to it

one week it'll be used a different week. Especially the games. I save all of the games. That is your hack. If you can slip a little question inside of the game? Someone suggested a game this week where it should be like TTR workouts or something.

I saw that. Like just give them a workout. It's not even a game. It's just like a segment. I really liked our challenges. Like the kick challenge, I think we should do more challenges for people. The challenges were fun,

but also just like every week, or not every week, every time we do this segment, we would give a swim set that people can go try to do. Because I think a lot of people that aren't coach, they go.

We should do that. That's fun. They go swimming or they go on their trainer and they don't know, they just want variety or a switch shop or something like that. And I personally love making up swim sets. Okay, so we've got Bike Tech with Eric.

That's kind of old news. Swim sets with Paula. Oh, wow. Jingle incoming. Next week we'll do swim sets with Paula. I can't wait. Jingle incoming. Jingle incoming.

It's got to have like splashing noises in the back. You know what? You can creative direct this jingle, Paula. Okay, well, we got to go. We're going to dinner at the Corbans right now, which are triathlon royalty, and we don't want to make them wait. No, we definitely, and we don't want to wait for this five-star meal. Yeah, I'm living for Dubai tomorrow.

So Eric needs to clean my bike, wax my chain, make it look like a new bike, pack it up. Shoulder massage. Tell you you're going to be great. I mean, that's all that I ask of him is to completely get my bike ready to go and to pack it. So I don't have to touch it. There have been no other requests this week or today or at all. And we're going to do it. It's going to happen. It's going to happen.

Even if it's 11 p.m. Yeah, I'm going to sing to you with the guitar. Yeah, of course. I'm serenading me while I wax those. Perfect. Well, thank you, everyone. We'll see you next week. Bye.

Adios.