That Triathlon Life Podcast - Guests Ellie Salthouse and Zac Collins join us to help answer questions about triathlon

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

This week we have Pro Triathlete Ellie Salthouse and her partner/coach Zac Collins on the podcast. We've all been friends for years so we thought it would be fun to do our biggest podcast yet. Ellie and Zac help us answer questions about bike sizes between men and women, zig zagging when sighting in open water, cutting wetsuits, and more! To submit your own questions, as well as become a podcast supporter, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com/podcast

Giday guys, welcome to That Trifle and Life podcast. I'm Ellie Salt House. I'm Zach Collins. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Fenblet. This is very long. I'm Nick Goldston. That's what I was thinking. As we were playing and said, I was like, this is going to be like a 20 second long intro. When did it go from Zaki to Zach? I'm still calling you Zaki. Well, everyone keeps pronouncing it wrong. Oh, really? Is it Zatchie? Zase. I thought he was Zacey for the longest time.

Yeah. But then it was like, it started it. Zachy, but then it just went to Zasey, and I was like, I'm just going to cut it, Zach. All right. Well, it's the new you. Okay, so who are they? Here's what's going on. If you're new here, Eric is me, Nick and Paula. That's our normal tripod on this podcast.

Paula and I are both professional triathletes. Nick's a professional musician and our best friend. And with us today, we have Ellie and Zach. Zach is Ellie's partner. Ellie is also a professional triathlete. You and Paula go way, way back, like way further back than Paul and I go. Yeah, we go back in 2000. Well, actually, we raced when I was just coming out of juniors.

So I think I was maybe 19, 20, when we first raced. Yeah. Yeah, I'd say we've probably known each other for 10 years. And we both trained together under Siri Lindley for a lot of years. And we were the only ITU short course athletes in the group. So we ended up doing a ton of stuff together. And we both now transition to long course, but Elliot and Zach have been training in Ben for the last two months almost. Sadly, they leave tomorrow.

So we thought this was a good opportunity to get them on the podcast. They have a lot of knowledge beyond maybe what we can share. So I think it'll be kind of fun to get a perspective of some fresh people here. Yeah. We're still doing the normal format. We'll go through some fun segments that Nick has prepared for us. And then we'll answer questions. Zach, what is your role?

What do you do, dude? Well, I kind of, so I started off owning a bike shop in Brisbane for seven years, and then I closed that. Luckily met Ellie, and then we got together, but before that, we were training together. And then once the bike shop closed, I was able to travel overseas, and now I'm kind of like part-time coach bike mechanic and baggage handler of Ellie. You're a very good bike mechanic, though. You're not just like a casual like I am.

You're like Eric level. Maybe beyond. I would say Zach has more knowledge than experience than me. We have a segment on the podcast called Bike Tech with Eric, and we even have a theme song. So for these listeners to think that there's someone that knows even more than Eric is extreme. I mean, yeah, I don't know. It's been doing it forever.

So it's all I've known. And didn't Zach you build up, sorry, Zach now. I'm going to have to transition to that. Didn't you build up Paula's bike recently at an important race? Emergency. When my frame. cracked at the Collins Cup last year. It cracked and cracked.

Cracked. Cracked. I had to get my components transferred from the cracked frame to the fresh frame. And Zach did that like the night before the race. So yeah, full trust in his abilities. A crazy thing, though, in Australia, the brakes are flipped. What? Yeah.

Are you kidding? I'm not kidding. I'm not joking. I mean, it is a joke. It's also true. Not to tangent, but on motorists. cycles too is like the front brake on the left and the clutch on the right do you know oh actually i'm not sure the clutch is on the left in australia okay so same as the u.s and europe okay oh that's

interesting why so if you ever have to ride at australian person's bike wow just beware but the dry train still on the right i know yeah yeah it's literally just that's the only difference until i was building up eric's tarmac that i was like you know what actually this makes sense like the Australian way doesn't make sense and just the cable routing. Yeah. Anyway? Yeah. Wow.

We won't say who's right and who's wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is different. Well, so, okay, so you guys have been here for eight weeks. Yeah. That's a long time. And is the idea here that you're prepping for the U.S. Open in Milwaukee? Yeah, that's pretty much it.

I had a bit of a bad race in Ibiza, and we weren't actually planning to come to bend. We were planning to go to St. George all along. But then Paula and I got chatting in Ibiza And she's like invited us out here And wanted to train together So that's how this happened It was kind of last minute

And we've loved being here So yeah we feel really lucky Do you feel like you got any of like a heat adaptation out here That you would have missed out on? Not really, right? Dude St. George is like the surface of the sun Yeah, probably not heat adaptation But definitely the altitude

It's a little higher than St. George So I feel like that's going to fare well When we go down hopefully So yeah Okay, so usually in this podcast, we do a little recap of what's going on in the week. And none of us raced last week, so we don't have any race recaps. But Eric kind of on a whim one morning decided to start a TTL Strava group with the idea that it would be kind of a platform for people to communicate and make comments and just have a community network that we've been trying to figure out. And I just created one.

I'm like, oh, I'll just try to make a post and just, I don't know, just see how it works. I feel like you were on FaceTime with me as you're creating it. Oh my God, it has a thousand members. Yeah, so there's a lot of members, but if you guys want to go join me, I'd love it. And it is really for the benefit of everyone that wants to chat or connect or do whatever with other people in the community. We don't necessarily need to monitor it, but I think it's cool that we can go in and check and make events and stuff like that. Well, I would like to say right off the bat that I want to do like a kind of a very casual meetup trail run in the Santa Monica Mountains within the next couple months. and I'll be posting, we'll talk about it on the podcast when it happens, but I want to post about it on there.

And we'll have some maybe goodies even for the podcast listeners. And that'll be a perfect place for that. You can set the route, get people to comment. Friends can see if each other are going. Yeah, I think that would be awesome. And if anybody wanted to do a similar thing, if you're in Kentucky and you want to host a group on or something, I don't know, maybe reach out on Instagram or like make a post about it or something. That is exactly what we were hoping to have out of a Facebook group or any sort of a group. is just that anybody who is, you know,

what we love about TTL is that you see someone else with a TTR shirt on in a race, you feel like you have a friend. And if you can do that in your own community, that's awesome. Yeah. Also, I don't know if we mentioned that I'm here. I'm looking at all of you.

Oh, yeah. This is all in, we're looking at each other into each other's eyes deeply, not through screens. We alive. I slept two hours and got on a plane and flew to Bend. So I'm in Bend right now. We're going to do some cool stuff.

Yeah. Okay. So the first thing I want to do, So Zach and Ellie, we do different segments on this show with cheesy theme songs that I write. A new segment is an excuse for me to write a little jingle. That's fine. The one I picked for you guys is called This or That. This or The TTO.

I like that. Can Paula sing it? Yeah. I usually, sometimes I'll like lightly put her voice in there. Okay, so this one is going to be a USA versus Australia edition. Okay. So you guys need to be honest about your opinions on the Australian version versus the USA version. Okay.

So you can early answer to me and we could like disagree? Yeah, you can definitely disagree. I can just spit it out at the same time. Yeah. Also, USA and AUS, same letters. Yeah. Just better with AUS. Yeah.

Okay. So first of all. Okay. American coffee or Australian coffee? Australian. Oh, too easy. Yeah. Any thoughts on why?

Oh, Americans just don't know how to do coffee. Yeah. especially like the Americano. It's long black. Like, I don't know. They even call it weird names. Like, mocha. Moka.

Like, what is that? I'm like trying to order like a latte. Like, or like a flat white. There's no flat white. Like, why can't they drink it? Yeah. Flaty. Yeah.

Flatty. Yeah. Also, by the way, my Google Home voice is an Australian. So I listen to Australian every day. That's the thing. This podcast runs long. Nobody's going to be upset. No.

Yeah. That's my favorite action. I always said, Australian girls, just I hear the accent. I'm like, do I love you? Did I just call in love? I think this is love. Is that why you asked to sit next to me tonight?

Okay, that's what it is. Okay, next one, cycling in the U.S. or cycling in Australia. U.S. Parts of the U.S. That one's very dependent on where you are. The U.S. is so, the geography of it, is so different from one place. So the best U.S. writing is better than the best Australian writing.

All hands down. Yeah. Definitely. I feel like if you want. You want places that are great for riding in Australia, you have to go kind of country. So there's not a lot of livability. Whereas places like Bend or Boulder, the cycling's really good. Everyone's really courteous.

And you can also live there and have a social life and enjoy it. Is cycling popular in Australia? Like, I'll just give you an example. Like in New York where I grew up, no one rides bikes on the streets. Even though there's, they could be good. In L.A., everyone's riding all the time. And Bend, everyone's running all the time. Is Australia kind of segmented like that?

I think it was maybe like five years. Ever since Cadill won the tour to France, it's really like gone, like big time. But like the big main city, cycling's like pretty popular, like very popular, but it's dangerous in the cities because we don't have the infrastructure like the bike lanes. They have tried to build like a lot of bike paths and things like that. But obviously like multi-use paths, especially on a time trail bike, it's not ideal. So yeah, I guess for commuting, they have lots of access, but not. so much for like road riding.

That's when people say like, is this city good for cycling? It's like, maybe it's good for riding your bike to work. But that's not the same as doing 20 minute threshold intervals. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Next. Music in Australia versus music in the US.

This is my personal question. Oh, we don't compete unless you love country like Ellie does. We have some good country singers. Australian country. That's a thing. Yeah. It's a big thing. Yeah.

Isn't Adele Australian? No, she's British. Oh, she's British. There's someone Australian is pretty famous. We have some good rappers. Blessin Esso. Yeah, Bliss and Esso. Yeah.

I love them. Yeah, Bliss and Esso, Ozzy. Oh, also, stuck underwater. Rufus DeSoul. They're Australian. No way. You guys are crushing it. We have some good DJs too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We do with some good DJs. Okay, here's a good one. Winter in the U.S. versus winter in Australia. Incomparable. Yeah, it doesn't get. So where we're from in Brisbane, our winter is, like, mid-70s during the day. So I wouldn't really call that winter.

There's very few places in the U.S. that can claim that. I don't know if there's any, to be honest, mid-70s during the day in the winter. Florida, maybe? Maybe Florida. Yeah, we have similar weather, I think. Phoenix? I don't think they, I think it gets colder than that in Phoenix. In the middle of the day, though?

Maybe not in the middle of the day. In the morning, it would be cold. In the night, yeah, it's real cold in Phoenix. Yeah. Cool. Okay, what about Australian food versus American? food. It's similar.

It's similar, but everything's like bigger here. Yeah, portion's definitely bigger. Not so much Ben, but I feel like we have more healthy options overall. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a lot more sides. Like you can order like grits or something in the morning with like your eggs on toast. Like, no, I just, I don't need the grits.

Right. Yeah. Hold the potatoes place. Yeah. Yeah. And then what about like, I have these separate, but maybe you can combine them. social life and quality of life for the average person. Because now you've spent a lot of time in the US

and you probably have a pretty good idea of what it's like. Socializing? I think maybe... It's very similar. I feel like Australia and the US, or at least the places in the US that we've been, it's so similar. Like you can just, like, fit right in.

The socializing is similar. Everyone likes going to the cafes and the restaurants and just kind of hanging out. I mean, we like the laid back kind of atmosphere, which I feel like we can especially get here and bend. But maybe like weekend activities, I think, because we're so used, like all our main cities are pretty much on the coast. Like everyone just goes to the beach on the weekends.

Whereas what we've seen here in Bend, like you go to a lake or something. So it's kind of similar, but a little bit different. And do you feel like the average income gives you a similar lifestyle here and there? Like, what does it cost for a coffee? What does it cost for out to go out to dinner? How often do people leave the house? I think price-wise. everything is quite similar except for the exchange rate.

Like it varies a lot. So for us, if like right now the exchange rate is pretty bad for us. Yeah. So everything now becomes a lot more expensive just because of that. But like a $5 coffee here is pretty much a $5 coffee back home. Like it's pretty comparable. Yeah. Got it.

Okay. So I don't know if you notice, but we don't do like any ads on the podcast. The way that we keep the podcast going is we have podcast supporters. And they can send it. in questions and they can help support the podcast with their monthly subscription, which is how the whole podcast works, we just answer questions. So now we're going to move on to questions, and we hope

that you'll help us answer these questions. Sweet. So first one is from Ella from Perth. Wow. Feller Ozzy. Yes, that's right. Hey, TTL, you guys are absolute legends, love everything you guys do for the tri-community. You guys are wicked. Is wicked in Australia? Oh, yeah. Really? Okay, got

it. It's like a Boston. You guys have got these, like, super throwback slang words. Love it. I was wondering how often we should actually replace or upgrade our bike. Do they have lifespan like I recently found out from you guys that helmets do? I'm a top age rooper and wondering if I should be updating my bike to keep up with the fastest model and those in the field that have quote unquote faster bikes. My TT has done me well so far.

I have a 2018 Servello P3 currently and love it. Will it save me much time on the bike as I'm fighting for extra time saved in races? Love you guys and Flynn. Ella. this might be a Zach question it's just funny because I feel like they're asking are the new bikes faster which to me

I don't know if that's even the right question to ask because are the new bikes faster like marginally fast yeah that's the thing it's always going to be faster and you're going to like it more I think this comes down to more like do you want a new thing and drive trains have come further than the frame

technology has yeah so the speed is going to come more if you're going to drop some money to try to get faster, I would look more into like upgrading your tire situation or like doing some wind tunnel time. But a new, but sitting on a new bike, that's worth a couple watts. Yeah, a couple of watts. Or just change the cockpit, change your front end.

Yeah, like Eric, say, get way more air at the front end. Or the componentry instead of a full upgrade. What we've said before that this makes me think of is when, like, I just had to do so much maintenance on my bike and it cost a lot of money. It was a bunch of different components all at once. And that's maybe at a certain point. It's like that plus the excitement of a new bike plus the very marginal gains of the aerodynamic advantage of a new frame. That's maybe when it makes sense. But like a carbon frame will last, it will outlast your desire to ride that bike.

Yeah, they give you lifetime warranty on some of the companies, which is crazy. I mean, great for the consumer. What even goes? Like the housing around the bottom bracket? Like, Yes. So Trek have got this thing where the tea. Yeah, they used to, when they had pressed in bottom brackets, they would actually go out to 0.3 of a mill in the diameter that would like stretch. And then you send your frame down to Trek and they reprofile in the bottom bracket

and send it back to you. Lifetime warranty. That's amazing. I think what we talked about before is often buying a complete brand new bike is actually more cost efficient than buying components by themselves. For sure.

So if you're going to upgrade. But I think the most interesting comment was the front end. Like you can get so. So many aftermarket front ends. Elle uses tri-rig. I use Watt Shop. Those are relatively cheap compared to a new bike, but they can have massive arrow changes.

And comfort. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, thanks for that question, Ella. Hopefully that answers are for you. But also, if you need us to tell you to buy a new bike, you should go buy a new bike. Yeah.

Do it. But how is the Cerello P3 as a bike? Is it good? Of course. It's good. It's very arrow. It's like marginally slow. than modern A bikes. It's just an old bike.

And in 2018, did they have electric shifting yet? Some. Because that would be a huge upgrade as well. Yeah. I'm sure it came as an option. My 2017 Venge has electronic shifting. I mean, like, I send Nick a video about every other day with a camera that I want to buy. Do I need a new camera?

No. But getting a new camera would make me really excited to go film things. And that's what we're talking about. You know what makes you really fast on a bike? Riding your bike a lot. Getting excited. So if that's what's going to make you on there, great. Yeah.

Yeah. That's why color matters too. Yeah. Look good, feel good. Yeah, yeah. Okay, next question here. It's a bike question again. I'm looking for a bike for my wife to help her get into triathlon,

doing a sprint and Olympic in the future. I want to get a simple starter bike. The question is when looking online through Facebook Marketplace, is there a big difference slash what difference is there when buying a woman's bike? We were just talking about women's versus men's stuff and cycling over dinner. She's a 54. I've only been looking for women's bike 54, but would it be okay to look at look for a men's 54. Thanks.

Love the creation of the Strava group, by the way. Congratulations on your engagement. Wow. Yeah. We didn't even have to bring that up. Yeah, well, I did see that there. Nice. Gentle reminder.

Yes. So what do you think? I mean, we were talking about like sit bone width. That could be a difference, but that's easily fixed with a different saddle, right? And then like the body proportions are, can be slightly different with like a top two. Not like all women have shorter torso. No, that's not a thing. And stand over height of a bike, right?

So in all the bike fits that I've done over the years, women have longer legs than men. And dudes have shorter torsos. But handlebar width was a big one. So if you buy a 54 centimeter men's bike, you usually get 44 bars. But you buy a 54 ladies bike, and it comes with 40 bars.

Yeah, but again, you can change it. The frame's the same. It's the same frame. I just painted it in a purple color. I remember my bike fitter going crazy about the bar width. Is that how much of an issue is that? It can be a huge issue. Really? Okay.

I mean, you could have numb hands or not potentially. There was actually a question about numb hands that I didn't put in, but that for sure was a bike fit issue. Yeah. Could you ride 42s or 40s? Forty-twos. I did 40s for a while back when I was like, I'm a crit race.

I'm in between narrow gaps. Well, I use 38s. Yeah, I use 38s as well. Yeah. And just for me, it's like a comfort thing. Yeah. Yeah, mine are a bit, uh. Yeah, bit in because you're cool.

But in terms of men's and women's bike, Eric and I both ride the Shivtiti, which is a unisex bike. I would call it a men's bike. Same with the time with the speed concept. They're all for men and women. Like your bike in a size, small speed concept would be the same that a male would ride. Yeah, yeah. It seems like at a high level, the frames are going to be the same,

and they just expect, do you have a wider sit bones? You're going to get the saddle that's appropriate for that. Do you have narrower shoulders? You're going to get the bars that are properly. Yeah, you adjust things accordingly. Yeah. But the frame, if you're looking on eBay or crap, eggs list for a new frame, you can definitely include men's frames.

Yeah. Yeah. It'd be easier. And is it like shoes where like eight women's and eight men's are completely different sizes? Not at all. 54 is a 54 is a 54. Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. Okay. Next question here is from Audrey to all of us. I did a two kilometer swim race this weekend and it was great. The Sylvan Lake Open Water Swim for your Alberta listeners. Paula, are you familiar? Very familiar. Very familiar.

Although I definitely made more work for myself by swimming sort of zigzaggy instead of a straight line. The course was marked well, but clearly my sighting is cock eyed and needs work, L.O.L. It got me thinking, do any of you have the same issue, especially during races? What are some of your tips for siding like a pro during the swim, especially if you're in an unfamiliar place? Absolutely love you guys and congrats on all the joy and awesome things happening in your lives. Thanks for all you do for triathlon. Can't wait to meet you all at a race one of these days. Cheers, Audrey. his feet.

She's pretty straight. She's pretty straight. Don't lead. That's the hot tip. Yeah. Don't be in front. I think the biggest thing is to practice it in training. Like with anything,

like you have to practice siding. Even though in a pool, obviously it's a lot easy. You've got the black line. The wall's only 50 meters away or 25. But I think practicing the siding and training is really important. Like every four to five strokes or even more often just lift your head. Like as you take a breath.

Like look at the block. or something. Yeah. Cite something. Yeah, exactly. The biggest, I had this problem big time as well. And I just noticed that I was really reluctant to cite as much as I'm now realizing I needed to. I would cite like once every whatever, 15 seconds, 10 seconds.

And that's enough time if you don't swim straight like me to go way off course. So try to cite more often. And also I noticed that for me when I cite my entire backside of my body just sinks in the water a little bit more. so optimizing that instead of like ripping your whole head out of the water. Just enough to that your eye line right before you breathe, you know. People think that sighting means lifting their whole head out. It really just means lifting your eyes out. And then you can still breathe to the side.

So you're not changing your body position too much. So when you guys are citing, how often out of 10 sites do you actually see the thing you're looking for? 100% depends on the color of the buoy, the sunlight. Yeah. We'll just say on average seven out of ten times. Yeah. So I think this is what's important to note is when you're citing correctly, it doesn't mean that you have to see the thing you're looking for 10 out of 10 times. I think this is what age groupers ripped their whole head out of the water because they think every time they cite, they better see that buoy.

It's okay if you don't, right? You're like drawing a vague image of where the thing is and maybe you see it seven out of ten times. So you're not really just placing your weight so strangely. Yeah. The last thing about this is goggle choice. Like if it's sunny or cloudy have different tints, like maybe three different kind of goggles. for different sun conditions and that'll help a lot with sighting. Yeah.

Also, if the boys are really hard to see, like, they're the same color as the water or something, it's also helpful to have like a mark on the shore or something, like a building in the background. Trees. Right. Red roof. You know, sight until you can come close enough to see the boy. Yeah, the buoy lines up with a red roof.

Just sight for the red roof. Yeah. Yeah. It is funny. I think for the pros, it is a little easier, though, because you guys are way more compact. Everyone is swimming a much straighter line. And maybe it's even like a paceline style thing. Whereas for us, A Jupers, it can be like a 40-foot wide lane, just roughly going in the right direction.

Yeah. Okay. Next question here is from Zerick, spelled Z-E-R-Y-C-K. That's awesome. There's a lot of fun letters in there. Hey, guys, long-time listener, but first-time writer. Got the pleasure of meeting Nick at 70.3 Morrow Bay and was not at all surprised at how friendly he was. It was my first 70.3.

And after I told him how much I crushed my goal by, he cracked a joke by saying, well, you must be bad at setting goals. Super cool being able to run into one of you guys at a race environment. I don't remember that. I would have never said something so rude. My question is this. I started triathlon about a year ago. I just completed my first 70.3 and I'm competing in my first full distance in Italy in September. I plan on running a 100K ultramarathon in April of next year and hopefully a 100 mileer at the end of 2024. Do you think I'm taking on these distances too quickly? I'm 23 and have not been struggling with any injuries while training. Just wondering if you guys recommend building a base over the course of a few years before

handling these large distances. Will it hurt me in the long run? Thank you so much for the pod and all that you guys do. Ecstatic to feel like I'm part of this community. It's Eric. So first of all, before we talk about the health issues here, like even if this person was guaranteed not to get injured, I'm kind of thinking like, why are you rushing this stuff? That's my first thought.

awesome things to do. It's kind of cool to be hungry for them before you do that. Are we trying to get through the 100-mileer, then we're going to switch to climbing Kilimanjaro, and then we're going to take a wing surfing, and then we're, like, if that's it, then, okay, like, I get it. And who cares if you wreck your body, because you can go on to the next thing. But if you're, like, I want to be a lifelong runner, personally, I would, like, really nail 50Ks. Yeah.

Own that. And then let the excitement for the 100-mise. I think if he has a resilient body that he doesn't get injured a lot and it interests him way more. Like, why not? Often when you're younger, you're like more resilient to bounce back from fatigue and long stuff. The reason I say why not is because I'm wondering like, I mean, it's like a therapist thing to say like, why are you doing these things? Are you trying to check things off of a list? Are you trying to escape from something?

Or do you love doing them? And if you love doing them, why are you rushing through them? I'm like, this is, you know how rare it is for people to find something that they love to do in their life? You found it. Like, savor every second of it. Stretch it out as long as possible. Don't rush through it. Yeah.

The don't out. But that being said, what about the physical side of this? What do we think of doing all this at once? What's a time span? Like a year. A year to get to 100 miles. Yeah. I mean, that sounds risky to me, just based on the conversation we had with my sister.

Yeah, that's what I thought. But maybe you can pull it off, but is it worth risking it? I guess that's a question. You have to ask yourself. Yeah, and how long do you want to continue doing 100 mile runs? Or, like, do you want to run for 10 more years, two more years? Like, what's the longevity here? One and done.

Yeah. I think it's one and done with the 100 miles. If it's one and done, then I guess go for it. Why not? There are people that can kind of, like, with not a lot of training, do races like this and not really hurt themselves. Yeah. Yeah.

So the problem is I feel like you don't really know it until you do it. And sometimes if you're not those people, it's too late once you find out. And then you pick up some lifelong injuries that are annoyed. Just stick with 70.3 for now. It's way more fun to train for. Agreed. Yeah. Me and Ellie have no interest in doing it full.

No. Sounds terrible. Never. And definitely not a hundred mile run. You can have that, Derek. Yeah. Yeah, never, ever? Zach, have you ever done any ultramarathon or anything like that?

I've never run more than 21K. Oh, really? That's it. Would you rather do a... Well, just say 100K. would you rather do 100k or an iron man iron man I think iron man's easier

iron man is that crazy to say yeah I would do iron man at least you got three things like mix it up a bit yeah a hundred k run it's a lot of running sometimes one k feels like a lot yeah yeah no iron man

do you see it in your future set only if you do it with me we got to take it up I'll do it I'm definitely and we'll do it together like swim together And in hand. Ride together, maybe you get a five-minute drafting penalty.

And then just run together. Yeah, that sounds pretty fun, actually. It would be good. That sounds fun. Are you going to cross the line, like hand-in-hand? Yeah. Yeah. Kirst and kissing.

Yeah, ideally. Would you get penalized for that? No. Hand-in-hand? No way. As long as you're both participants, it's fun. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. That's fun. Okay, next question here is from Fletch. I bought a DeBore wetsuit off the recommendations you all had for them. I got last year's Fjord 2.0, so I was able to save a bit of cash. The wetsuit feels great. The upper body, particularly shoulders feel amazing. I am, however, struggling to get the legs off quickly.

The wetsuit gets stuck around my ankles and feet. Do any of you have this issue? I've heard trimming the suit might help, but cutting it up worries me, especially with something so nice and expensive. Fletch. So wetsuit companies have been kind of implementing this a little bit into their designs. Yeah. But should you still, like if this is a...

problem should Fletch cut more out of the wetsuit. You definitely can. And if my mental picture serves me correctly, DeBore actually has several seams across, like, extra reinforced sewing stitches across the seam at the ankle, where, which leaves me to leave, if you don't cut through that that sew mark, those are, like, notches that will keep the suit from, like, ripping further. And back when we swam in blue, 70, the bottom, like, six inches of the ankle. was also reinforced at the seams so that you could, I would take off like a centimeter, centimeter and a half at a time to test it.

Don't just take off, you know, half the leg. I would take off like six inches, honestly. And is it just straight around or do you do like a V cut in the back or anything? I would try to mimic whatever the stock shape is. Do you cut your wetsuitally? No, because I wear Zoot. So they're typically like a high, a wet, suit. They come like pretty much like high cough.

Oh really? Yeah. I never have a problem. You don't have to. Getting caught on my feet and ankles. But I do use a ton of body glide as well. Right around there. So both like on the bottom of the suit inside and out. So it slips off pretty easily. I think the body glide is actually a great tip for this though. Because I remember the first time I put body glide around my ankles how much easier it was to get the wet side off. Yeah. Yeah. So if you don't know what body glide is, look it up and you can use it on your neck too to and stop surfing. It's like Vaseline. Yeah, you can also use Bibliad. Baby oil, too.

That works great. I remember reading that body glide, like Vaseline, you should not use with wetsuits. Yeah. Because it can actually break down the wetsuit material. And for the pros who get free wetsuits whenever they want, that's not a problem. But for us, mortals, like me and sacks. Use the $20 body glide too. And I don't know about baby oil.

But I do remember reading that you shouldn't use Vaseline with a wetsuit. Okay, next question is from Bella. Congrats on the engagement, Paula and Eric. I and all of TTL Nash are excited for you both. Zach and Ellie, I don't know if you know this, but we have a lot of pet names for the listeners. We call them our kids. We call them TTL Nash.

It's like short for nation, so that's what we're referring to here. I and TTL Nash, all of TTLNH, are so excited for you both. I was wondering if you ever find it hard to eat healthy foods during the day between your workouts. Eric, this reminds you something you said today. Obviously, fueling to perform and recover well is a priority.

However, I find this difficult when I have multiple workouts in a day, as it can be hard to balance eating healthy, nutrient-rich foods, with not feeling too full in my workouts. For example, if I have a lunch with lots of veggies, I often feel sick in my afternoon workout. To avoid this, I often find myself eating carbs pretty much all day. For example, toast with peanut butter on repeat. Sounds like someone I know. And then before I know it, it's dinner and I've barely eaten any veggies. I'm curious to know how you guys deal with this. Keep up the content, your podcast and YouTube videos are always a highlight of my weeks.

for your races ahead, Bella. Pretty much just described my diet. Eric today was telling me, he's like, I need sugar constantly all throughout the day. It's the only way I can keep going. Yeah, veggies in the middle of the day definitely do not work for me. Higher fiber things before a run don't really work.

Like for me, about an hour and a half before the session is like kind of where the line is where I can eat something relatively significant and not have a problem while running. Biking is less of an issue. You can usually like have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, like 20 minutes before going biking. Swimming too. And as long as there's no like max efforts.

Yeah, swimming, it's not fun to feel bloated. It's then it feels like kind of hard to engage your core for me. But no, it's for sure a struggle. But I think if you just make sure that you always get a good big salad in the evenings, that's great. I also just started trying some athletic greens for the mornings. I was actually going to say, Athletic Greens sent us this giant box of stuff. which we're very grateful for. I've never really, I tried it the last couple days.

I've been on and off into it for like a while. Yeah, I like the taste of it. And it is a way to kind of get a lot of vitamins and stuff in the morning when you'd normally just be having toast and peanut butter. But I'm actually curious to hear Ellie's nutrition advice. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily say that toast and peanut butter is bad. I agree. It's high carb, high fat, which is kind of what you need to feel your workouts.

And if you're having like hard sessions that day, you definitely need something that's going to keep you full and like obviously give you enough energy to complete the workout. So I would say as Eric and Paula mentioned, like try getting like heaps of greens with dinner, something that you can, you know, easily sleep on. And then throughout the day, like have things that keep you full, like oatmeal, yogurt, like things like that that will feel your workouts but not make you feel bloated or, you know, hungry. So for people who don't know, why would I, why would I not eat? Like, okay, so Bella feels not. great when she eats vegetables, but some people can't eat gluten. Some people can't eat lactose,

right? But there's something about vegetables that that's a common thing. What is it about vegetables or salad or high fiber foods that makes it so that it gives you a stomach egg? It's actually the breakdown of the fruits and vegetables in your stomach that create like gas, basically. So they go through you really quickly as well, and often that's not great, especially if you have a run in the evening. Yeah. You'll have a run on the week. Run. You'll be running to the bath or do. Yeah, I think you can compensate a lot at dinner time and eat a lot of veggies at dinner more than you would, more than another person might, because you're not eating them in the day.

And that's totally fine. And I don't think that our diets look picture perfect because we are trying to eat so much. So we're not afraid to like have chocolate and have a treat after dinner and stuff like that just to get enough calories. But we try to make sure our dinners are pretty healthy and heavy on the veggies. I think all of us do. Yeah. You can do like a trial and error as well. Like ever since Ellie started running in the afternoons,

I'm terrible runner in the afternoon because I can't get my eating right. So I'm four hours before I run. I have to have a huge like two packets of oats and yogurt four hours and then I can, then I'm fine. But anything like three hours, I'm in trouble. Yeah. But that's just me. You just know your body.

Yeah, it was trial and error. What about like a white bagel? Like can you have that? pretty close. Like I had, we both had like a white bagel with jam, ballad butter, like an hour before we did a hard run. And I actually showed up and was like a little bit hungry. I definitely did not have any stomach problems.

I think in the morning I'm fine, like in the morning, but in the afternoon for some reason, I'm just kind of good. I don't know what it is. I go through phases too. Yeah. Whereas like every afternoon anything is a run to the bathroom. Yeah. Ellie and I have to race at 4 p.m. in Milwaukee.

Yeah. So we're a little concerned about that. Risky business. Yeah. But we've been doing some sessions later in the day just to kind of trial and error, like Zach said, what feels good at that time. And I think the key to that is eating a pretty big meal four or five hours before. So you're not just eating breakfast and then kind of waiting for the race. You have to eat enough within this window where you're not going to feel like bonked in the race.

Yeah. To go back to the original thing about eating the veggies, I do think something like Athletic Greens is a pretty good solution. I don't think it's going to be as good as eating real vegetables, but it's definitely better than having. nothing. And I do think it tastes great. It's like a, it's just like a, it's like a, it's like a, this is not a paid ad, you guys. No. They did send us free athletic grades. I just, I don't think it's like a replacement, but it's a good add-on.

Yeah. To just like give you some sort of a baseline. And I like how they've kind of revamped their branding and stuff. Like it's gotten cooler. Oh, yeah. A.G-1. Yeah. Is it even called athletic greens anymore?

It might be called AG1. I mean, yeah, it's called Athletic Greens. Like the boxes that it came in and all that are kind of cool. If you're someone like me who struggles to eat any vegetables, definitely athletic greens is better than not me. We're saying to put you on like the athletic greens drip. Sometimes I put it in smoothies too. I don't know if that's like not allowed. We've been hitting the smoothies hard lately.

Yeah, that's a great idea. Found a new bend smoothie spot thanks to the Australians. It's kind of like, I don't want to say pre-digested, but it's like pretty broken down already. Yeah, yeah. Well, and you can add like your protein powders, which. which will keep you full. Yeah. So that's something that like Bella could look at.

She said she is hungry. So instead of reaching for like the snacks or whatever, you can have like high protein. I'm still going to reach you for the snacks. You could put oats in it. That's like going to keep you full for long. Yeah, I guess like back to basics, no matter what you do, like immediately after that workout,

have the food as quickly as possible. The worst case scenario is you like don't eat immediately. And then all of a sudden it's been 45 minutes and you have 45 minutes until the next session. And you're like, oh, I mean, well, I'd not have to choose between burping the whole run or bonging. BORNELLOXORN. Yeah. BORN, awful bees.

Okay, next question here is from Jackson. Would you consider using your core body temperature monitor while racing to track data? It could show at what temperature failure occurs or power losses compared to core body temperature. I figured this could be considered since it is small and light. This is in reference to a question from last week. Did you post about using this? We talked about it on the point. Oh, okay.

Great. Also in your story, you put it up. Yeah. I just put this in, it can be a quick answer. But my coach, Paulo, said that they're actually a little bit less accurate used outside in the wild versus, like, stationary. I don't know if that's true or not. Because, like, maybe wind. Yeah, there's, like, way more external variables when you're outside.

But I do know that the Norwegians use them outside, and they race with them as well. It's a really small device that just slips on your heart rate strap, so there's no downside, really, unless you're. like living by the number and, you know, it might not be accurate. I think what's interesting about like the Norwegian, like they have so much data, right? It's like, oh, everybody yesterday is to start pricking their fingers to get lactate.

But like those guys have been taking lactate, lactate measurements at every session since they were four years old. Yeah. So they know like what a realistic amount of variability is. And same thing like with the core temperature sensor. If they're wearing it every single day, they know like, oh, that session doesn't actually mean anything. because I have enough data to like...

Is it something that you can actually read real time, like on a head unit, or does it have to calculate and download? Yeah. Yeah, it can show up on your Wahoo or whatever your head unit is. It shows up as muscle oxygen saturation, but it's actually the temperature. Yeah. It just reads it as that as you're pairing the Bluetooth. Got it.

Like, would you want that daughter in front of you? Like, what would you do with it? Like, I've never used one. Yeah. Yeah, what would you do with it? You see it rising and then... I think the Norwegians use it to moderate their effort. Like if in Kona, if they're getting into the 39s, like, back off.

That means trouble. Yeah. So there is like an ultimate speed limit, just like a power meter. Yeah, I think that's, that would be the point of it. Yeah. It'd be like heart rate. Like, oh my gosh, my heart rate's like over 200. I need to back off.

Yeah. Because I cannot sustain this. Yeah. Like cruise through an aid station, put some ice on your head. Yeah. Oh, that's a perfect example of how it would not be as accurate, right? If you pour cold water over your stuff, it gets that sensor, it's going to go out. Yeah.

I don't know exactly how it works. But I also do you think it might be more applicable in a hot Iron Man than what the kind of racing we're doing? Because we're just going all out no matter what. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Cool. Okay.

Next question here is from Ethan from Wisconsin. Hey guys, my question is for the boys. Sorry, Paula and Ellie. He didn't say Ellie, but I'm throwing that in there for us here. I've been doing a lot of research lately on athletic underwear. Seems to me that there's not a lot of great options out there for active people. Zach is looking his lips. What underwear brands, types, lengths do you guys like to run and they keep everything comfortable?

I would really appreciate the help on this since I have bought quite a few different brands and styles and can't seem to find anything that doesn't either ride up, get too warm or cause chafing. Thanks for your expertise, gentlemen, Ethan from Wisconsin. All right, Zach, you are frothing at the mouth. For a long, long time, I have never worn underpants, like, while running or any sport. It just, I need, I actually need a bit of movement. Otherwise, I get, like, hot. So what I would do and what I've done is I've trialled a lot of different pants with the netting.

And, like, because I don't want to just run around with no netting. Right. When you say netting, do you mean, like, the built-in underwear? The liner. Yeah, the liner. Yeah. And that, for me, now, feels normal. Like, that's what I like to train and run in, because I don't want the underpants, like,

riding up, especially around. like your top quads. I don't know if you guys get that, but like it feels uncomfortable. I don't think Eric's ever for more an underwear this way. I don't wear underwear for walking around,

let alone running. Neither does that. That sounds horrible. Not in the summer. Zach owns one pair of underwear and it literally sits beside the bed and he puts his phone on it so it doesn't vibrate.

My guy. That's what I'm talking about. That's his only use. That's it. I'm pretty sure Eric only has one pair as well and there's Sacks brand. Sacks is really high quality. Shout out to Colin, Paula's brother, for getting those for me.

You got a sweet shark print on them. But yeah, I would suggest try not wearing undies. Just buy some netted. When I, when I, I shouldn't even talk about this because people got very upset from my comments about ear plugs last week. But like when I imagine running, like doing a workout today, like wearing any of my underwear underneath my track, shorts, I just like.

I couldn't. I just get stressed. It sounds so restrictive and hot. Hot. You get hot. Like, you get hot. Like, this area, like, your groin gets hot. It is.

It does. It gets hot. Of course, yeah. Nick, you wear underwear. Yeah, I wear underwear when I run, usually. Yeah. I've just recently started to not with run specific shorts that have a liner. Yep.

But if a short didn't have a liner, I would wear underwear with it. And I really like, I wear the little lemon underwear, and it's super comfortable. Sometimes like the very like I forget what they call it But some is like really has like a like a compact effect And some is like way more breathable and loose And I just think it's the material that they use is comfortable I never have issues with chafing

The only underwear I wear not that this was directed towards us Is Lill Lemon. Yeah I love Lle Llemon underwear. I do think the material is really good and it's good for working out. I don't think Lulmin is alone here though I think if you get any like premium quality underwear It's going to have this a similar effect.

that's going to be very comfortable and avoid chafing. But I have been experimenting with not wearing underwear with the liner and it's been great. And it's also one less thing to wash, which I appreciate. So if you're like looking for a pair of run shorts with a liner, do you then look for like a kind of like a mesh kind of liner? Well, that's a good question. Lightest possible. Are we talking about the ones that have like the built in like basically like briefs down?

Or you're talking about the ones that are like the TTL ones? It's like a. Like a very lightweight brief, like a very lightweight brief, like literally like a speedo type of cut. Nothing touching your legs. No. Like exactly ordered the women's TTL shorts to run in. And he said he likes them. He loved them. Yesterday. So I usually wear a men small. And I ordered a ladies medium. And I ran in them yesterday for an hour 15. Brilliant. Love them.

Yep. And they have the lineup. And they have the lineup. And they have the line up. And they're nice and short, right? They're very short. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it was great. I had, yep. Nice. Thanks, Zach. Yeah. Thanks for that plug. I think we still have those in stock. Got a date in Australia. I'd wear women's medium or no underwear at all. Yeah, no underwear, no underwear.

You'll be in. Okay, and last question here, and we can get philosophical with this one if we feel like it. Hello from Chicago. Congratulations on the engagement. I've been here since day one. And when I saw the Instagram post, I screamed. Anyways, Eric, how does your training differ with a bike race in the mix? Do you keep everything the same, or do you add

more bike-specific workouts and maybe get rid of a swim or run. I'm looking to do a gravel bike race as well as gravel try in September. Also, I look forward to cheering on Paula in Milwaukee. My husband and I will be there. And Ellie. And Ellie, of course. If she knew Ellie was here. We're springing this as a surprise on everyone.

So this is the question, like, what it makes me think of is how I love that training for triathlon allows you to be like, yeah, I'm going to do a half marathon race next weekend. And I can be like fairly competitive at it. Or like, oh, my friends just invited me to a trail running trip. Yeah, I'll go. I can do it. Or a century bike ride. Yep, I can do it.

But how much does that? Like, how much can you push that into like, okay, but here's a hundred mile mountain bike race that you want to perform at? Like, how much do you start shifting things towards that? I don't know if I'm really the best example because I didn't shift anything at all. I wouldn't say that Paulo doesn't approve, but he's just kind of like, okay, whatever, if you want to do 100 mile mountain bike race, like, you're going to, a big kid, I'm not going to stop you. That's our coach. That's our coach, Paul O.

But I really didn't do any specific preparation for it. That being said, for it. But Eric did grow up mountain biking. Like, I think there's very few triathletes you could put on a mountain bike and would have the skills even to do it. Not only did he grow up mountain biking. Mountain biking is a huge part of his triathlet training. Yeah.

Like if you put Ellie and I on mountain bikes. Oh, my God. I told us to go to 100 miles, we would take a week. I'll be in the emergency, very thing. in the first miles. Yeah, me too. Yeah, so I guess that, I don't know if people are aware of that. But yeah, I do mountain bike several times a week, at least.

I'm doing intervals on the mountain bike right now as I train for Xtera. But my training is much more focused right now on the Xtera distance of riding for an hour and 10 minutes and running a 10K. But I do think that just the sheer volume that we do, like we're still doing a four-hour ride on the weekend. And we're doing an hour and 20-minute run with intervals and everything. like we're training 24, 25 hours a week, and I think that's what you would be doing, total aerobic volume to get ready for something of that length. Now, like that said, for next year,

what I would do differently is I would for sure put in, like, a couple of five-hour rides and maybe make those mountain bike rides, maybe. But the thing about this was also, like, a lot of, like the decisive moments in this were not on single track. The decisive moments were, like, dual-track. the decisive moments where like dual track, dirt road climbs. This is just fitness.

This is like 70.3 bread and butter. How hard can you go for like a 40 minute climb and then recover and do it five more times? But it's not, it wasn't like when you watch a UCI World Cup and they're doing like 800 watts for 10 seconds over and over and over. That's funny because this feels like a direct contrast to what Paul has been experiencing with the time trial championship. and stuff where she has been doing more specific training for it, but it's not, like you said, it's not 70.3 bread and butter. What was your total race time in Canada? 30 minutes?

20-something minutes? For the T.T. Yeah. Yeah, that's the opposite end of the spectrum. That was 40 minutes. So it's different. I did change my training for that a little bit, though. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

I think the bigger difference here, though, is that's a national championship, and this was a mountain bike race and bend that I could go to from the door. Like it was actually pretty competitive, but I wasn't going into it like, man, I got to be on the podium. This is a career thing. This was me dipping my toe in it. And next time, yeah, I'll do some more specific preparation specifically around fueling heat and then just a couple more longer rides. Well, okay, Zach and Ellie, I know you guys do like, I think you're the one who taught me about this term, park run. Is that right?

Yeah. So that's a little different, right? And also the stakes are a little bit lower for that. But how would you approach something like this? Like the equivalent of 100 mile mountain bike race, maybe if you had like 140 mile road race that you were going to do, how much would you... 140?

I'm just saying 100 mile mile mile rice might equate to 140. An eight-hour effort. Yeah. Well, so in January next year, I'm going to compete against the elites in the road race, and that's 185K. So I'm going to drop one swim a week, and I'm going to drop one run a week and ride five to six days a week.

But like Eric said, it's not about the fitness of the 185K. It's literally like, okay, there's a five-minute climb and an eight-minute climb, and there's 13 laps. How many times can I get around with the pros before I get shelled? So I've got to train that five-to-eight-minute power. So I might do a couple of five, six-hour rides, but I've got to focus on the five-to-eight-minute power just to make each lap. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you see yourself in that as well? Well, like Paula, I actually did the National Time Trial Champs in Australia earlier this year, and I changed my riding a little bit. Like we were doing a lot of five and six minute efforts just because that's how the course worked out. I think the way the course was, I ended up being out there for 45 to 50 minutes of similar distance, I think. So yeah, I mean, just spending a little bit more time in that really precise zone, I guess. makes it a bit more catered to that. Okay, now for all of you, except for I guess, Eric,

you have not spent a significant amount of time shifting away from your regular triathlon training to focus on one of these races yet. Is that true? I mean, my shift has been from 70.3 training to X-Dera training, so short bike intervals. So my question for you would be, because I'm thinking as an age group, we're like, okay, now I'm concerned about my run and my swim fitness. Or if it's a swim race, my run and my bike fitness, whatever it is. How do you, do you just like totally not think about that?

Or do you try to limit the damage as much as possible? Or do you kind of think, well, actually I'm doing all this extra volume on the bike, that's going to keep things kind of rolling along at a similar level? Yeah, I think so. And Paula and I were just talking about this the other day, actually. Like she has, like, as a result of injuries rather than by choice, has gone through some like six-month periods where she's really focused on the bike and come out the backside of it running really well

as a result of, like, she's so strong on the bike, gets down with the 70.3 bike distance is not as tired as she would have been. Overall fitness is higher and can still run pretty well, even though, like, you haven't done as much run volume. Yeah. So I think if you're going to focus on a thing, like don't stress about these other things,

like take that moment to really enjoy focusing on the thing, whether it's the bike or the swim or the run, and you can pick up the other, and it's going to be there and your total aerobic volume is going to be there. Yeah. Fitness is fitness. Yeah, I think also keep your expectations in check.

Like are you doing this additional event as to supplement, say, a 70.3 in a couple months or are you doing it as your A race of the year, your primary focus? I mean, if it's not your primary focus, then keep up the other two. If not, then drop the other two or lessen it and then, you know, increase the bike or the run or whatever it may be. Yeah, you could think of it as like capping off a bike-specific block. Yeah. Yeah, totally. With a little bit of an emphasis on the bike.

Yeah, cool. I think there's a lot of A Troopers that we have this, right? It's like, oh, my bunch of my friends are doing a century. Yeah. I guess I need to prepare a little more for that. Yeah. That's, I think you nailed it initially. That is the beautiful thing about, like, the fitness that we've all accumulated being triathletes.

You can jump in any of this stuff that you want to and enjoy it because you just have the built-up fitness. There's a perma-fit. Permifit. Yeah. Permifit. it. I like it. I think also if you're aiming to do like a gravel race, just spending extra time on the gravel bike is going to automatically, you know, make you a little bit better.

Like if you're spreading your time across three separate bikes right now and then you spend more time just on one specific bike, I feel like that's going to help, right? Also, riding gravel makes you hella strong. Oh, yeah. Legit. It does. It's kind of nice where you're like, oops, can't call an Uber from here. Yeah.

Gotta get back. You just naturally. you just naturally push a few more watts on the gravel, just like trying to maintain speed and gravel grinding. Love it. Well, those are all our questions. That was very fun. And this is the most people we've ever had in the podcast at once.

And definitely the most people we ever had in a room recording at once. I think it worked well, though. Like, I was worried maybe there would be too many people, but I think we all had good answers. I think we all had our moments. I've been friends for like years. I mean, I guess I've met your guys like maybe a couple years ago now. You guys have known each other for a long time.

That helps. Yeah. I do have to do a quick mention, since I'm the one that went through the dozens of emails about earplugs while swimming. We did not mean to offend anyone when we said you should not wear ear plugs. Let's just leave it at that. But I'm fully in the boat of like if you have a medical thing or a vertigo and it's like makes you more comfortable and able to get out of the water and bike and run safely. We are not anti-earplug. Let's just clarify that.

Neither is there. I feel like I'm the one who needs to be saying this. You better apologize before you get canceled. I was just taking the devil's advocate here of like, here's what's cool. And I'm pretty sure like in my mind we left it off as, if you have a condition, of course, just like do the thing.

But as we thought back about all the people that we swam with through the years, hundreds of swimmers, it's like it feels like, yes, it could be uncomfortable to begin with, but it is possible to get through it. But if you don't feel like getting through it, that's fine.

We were just saying ear plugs are not. Another crazy thing. Another crazy thing is I think more people wear them than we think. Because you can't see it. People have some cats on. So I do think a lot of people actually use them, especially in cold water. And I'm just saying this because I read literally dozens of emails about, I wore ear plugs. Here's my experience with ear plugs.

Your plugs are great. So, yeah. Anyway, I just wanted to do a quick mention of that since it was a hot topic. Plus, if someone wants a circle swim with you, you can just pretend like you can't hear them. Yeah. I was actually had a full-on conversation, one-sided conversation with the dude wearing like the Apple shuffle in headphones. I was like, it's okay if I jump in here with you? Okay, awesome.

You can't hear me anyway. Are you going to do breaststroke? Sick. I love it. And he just like looks up at me after I've been talking to him for like 30 seconds and just like waves. Yeah. Like, cool. Have a nice day.

Yeah, that was funny. Good talk. I don't think that headphones in the pool are a bad thing. There's no danger concerns. Like if you're out. side on a trail. Oh, I've never worn them.

Oh, man, it's like the music in the water good. If I didn't feel like a total cuck, but we're putting them on. First of all, it doesn't sound good. Sound conducts way better through a solid, through,

sorry, through a liquid than it does through the air. So they work great. You can, it doesn't sound the same as like, as out in the open, but you 100% sounds like music and it's fun. I also want to say that I would like to do a little test

of a bunch of different underwater headphones. So if you work in marketing at one of these headphone companies and you want to send me some, I want to test a bunch out and do a little like report on it in a couple of months. So I've already used one pair, but I might buy a few others or like reach out because I don't know if I must not be the only person. Did you use the ones that go fully in your ear? No. Did you use the ones that like rest on your jawbone? Yes.

Those are pretty cool. Yeah, they are cool. Do they what the kids use at the pool? That, I think those are fully in their ears. But I'm not totally sure. the kids at the bend pool all have headsets on so their coaches just staying there on deck like talking to him jimmy jimmy pick up your stroke oh my gosh kerry let's go karen let's go i said up like the i would have actually gone insane in swim team as a kid if i have my coach in my ear

so fast imagine my voice in your ear the whole time i'd be like having nightmares waking up with my coach's voice in my head eric do you know what's cool about them though with the music is that they since sound conducts through the liquid so well when you're under Under water, it's at a volume that whatever of you're choosing. But when you're out of the water, some of the sitting three feet away from you probably can't even tell that you're listening to music. Even though they're playing out into the open, like they're sitting right like two inches in front of your ear.

What I think is kind of interesting about swimming, having grown up swimming and not having headphones and everything is that I feel like when I'm getting into a rhythm swimming, a song pops into my head that just like fits with my stroke rate and it just like and it plays on repeat and I just get into this like, flow state with it and i kind of wonder sometimes with headphones if you just like if it's just on shuffle and just keep kicking a new song and you're like missing a little bit of that opportunity for like the perfect song to come out of your subconscious this is the artist this is the artist eric none of us have that problem this is why i can't count in the pool i'm thinking about this stuff

right yeah i'm like are we on a 250 or 150 i feel like i have so many things to think about while i'm assuming that i couldn't possibly have music as well i agree like i'm like okay one two three breathe. I tend to breathe. Yeah. Okay. Good. Yeah.

Side. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. No. When I was swimming

in music, I really appreciated it. And then the headphones broke. I don't know. Yeah. So, Nick is fishing for free swimming headphones? 100%. If anybody has headphones, I would love to test them. Forever.

Forever. But no. I mean, I... Very long-term test. I engineer and mix music as part of what I do for living. You are actually qualified for this test. I am qualified for this test. I am qualified.

qualified and I swim poorly and I would love to have a distraction while I swim. So I'm going to test a few out and then come back with some results for our listeners. Sorry, I need to do one more tangent. Actually, I just want to say if this doesn't happen, we're just going to buy some headphones for this test. We'll take it out of the pod budget. Great. Awesome. Actually, I don't need to say my thing. I'll do it next week. Okay. You heard it there.

You better tune in next week. Well, that's a perfect segue, guys. Good luck. I hope the trip goes really well. Obviously, the four of you are going to meet back up in Milwaukee. Actually, Eric, you're going to be there too, right? I'm going to be there too. Yeah. Yeah. That'll be fun.

We'll be watching. When is that race so people can watch it? Saturday. It's Saturday, guys. Saturday, August 5th. August 5th. We start 4.15 p.m. local time. Yeah.

The women's race. Yeah. Which is, is it. Is that Eastern? Central. Pretty sure it's Central. Central. Well, don't take our word for it.

It's Milwaukee time. Go to the PTO website and they'll have all the information. The professional triathletes organization. Okay, so Zach and Ellie, where can people find you? Or is there anything that you'd like to kind of like plug here? The best place to find me is probably on Instagram, just Ellie's Salt House. Yeah. And Zach, what about you?

I'm the same. Just on Instagram. You can find me through Ellie's page. I'm Jackie underscore Collins. I'm changing to Zach Collins. Oh, God. Yeah, see, that's what's messing me. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I'm going to do a quick shout out and say that the Salty Groove Collection just came out today. It's going to be several days old when this podcast comes out, but Zoot hired me to do the video for Ellie's Paral Launch. It's super fun. Watch the video and buy yourself it. Super fun. And also a big thanks to Ellie and Zach for sitting through the pod for an hour. Yeah, hanging out here in our hot, sweaty office. They've been the best houseguess ever. We're going to miss you. We're going to miss you. We're going to miss you guys. And Flynn. You might actually be taking Flynn with you. We're okay with that. All right, well, we'll catch up with you guys next week.

I guess we'll do one more podcast before Milwaukee. That's true. Thanks for the questions. Keep sending them in. Yeah, at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast. Thanks so much. Later. Bye.

Bye.