That Triathlon Life Podcast - Hammering the bike leg in a triathlon, chlorinated hair, saddle size, and more!

Episode Date: July 21, 2022

This week we get ready to all go race a triathlon in Edmonton, Alberta for the PTO Canadian Open! Paula racing on Saturday, Eric and Nick on Sunday. In this episode we continue to answer your questions about close calls on the bike, balancing the bike/run effort in a race, van life, grizzly bears and more! Head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com for TTL gear

Hey everyone. Welcome to That Triathlon Life Podcast. I'm Eric LaGersham. I'm Paula Findlay. I'm Nick Goldston. Paul and I are both professional triathletes. Nick is an amateur triathlet, professional musician, and just a really good friend of ours. And on this show, we talk about kind of what's going on with our training during the week and what races we have coming up maybe. But most importantly, we answer as many questions from you guys, listeners as we possibly can. And we are all going to Edmonton officially. Yeah, as of the last pod, Nick has booked a flight, and we have this plan to pick him up in Calgary on our way through, so he will be there not only watching our races, but also racing. And we all get to race at separate times, which is, I feel like a dream scenario that may never happen again. Pretty wild.

Yeah, it's kind of crazy. So I race on Saturday at 1045 local time. Nick, you race Sunday morning at 6.09. Oh, God, don't remind me. Which is just horrible. I think I would take that versus my 1245 in the afternoon start. I was thinking we should switch, Eric. It's not even the heat.

It's like the... That's a little bit to heat. Maybe a bit. But it's also just timing you're eating and timing like what you're going to do in the morning. This awkward amount of time between waking up and going down to the park. 10.45 is kind of optimal because I can just wake up at my normal time and eat my normal breakfast. And then head down. So I don't know.

I feel like I have the best start time. Have you guys looked at the weather? Not recently, but I don't think it's supposed to be extreme. Okay. Yeah. I hear where we are in the mountains anyway. In Canmore, it's been very mellow. Like, the warmest day has been like 85 degrees Fahrenheit and rain today.

It does actually say 40% chance of rain on Sunday. Sick. Oh, that's good. I know Sweet Eric doesn't like the heat. Yeah. If it rains on Sunday and it's overcast, that's good for Eric. Saturday is low of 13, high of 27. I'm talking in Celsius.

Right. 27 is like, 82. Something like that. Yeah, it could be pretty high. Yeah. Anyway. I mean, it's not like 40. It's not crazy. No, but as soon as you get close up to the 30s for us, non-heed adapted species, we start to feel it. But that's okay. You know what's nice about that time, though, is that time for both of you, unlike a lot of races, is a time that people from all of the U.S. and all of Europe can very easily tune in and watch. It's not, no one's sleeping. at 12 p.m. or 10.30 p.m. Mountain time.

Sorry, a.m. 10. 30 a.m. Mountain time. Yeah. Yep. What about the Australian New Zealand? Yeah, that's, I think that's a little tough. They get screwed in every situation, right? Yeah, it seems like a hard time zone. But anyway, that's right. I'm very, very, very excited. I fly out tomorrow and then I'm going to stay the night in a five-star lavish hotel near the airport in Calgary. And then you guys are going to pick me up. We're going to drive over it.

I'm going to see Canada for the first time. I've never been. That's wild. It is a tragedy that you're not coming to Canmore. I know. Well, maybe we can figure it out. We're going to need to fix it. You might need to change your flight on the other end so you can come back to Canmore. Yeah, I would love to see it.

If either of us, if any of us wins, you're coming to Canmore and you're just changing your flight. Okay, I love that. So, okay, let's make, let's amend that. If either of you win or if I get top five age group. Not fair. Not fair. If I, because it's hard for us to get top five as well. Yeah.

but it's impossible for me to win. Okay. Top three for us. Top five for you. I love that. I love that. That's a good plan. Okay. Top three or top five.

We're going to Cammore. And we're going to get drunk. None of us really drink. I've never seen either of you drunk. You've definitely never seen me drunk. So let's get wasted in Canmore. I got drunk like two nights ago because we came home from a hard brick. And then I had half a cider, but I was like super dehydrated.

And then we went on a trail run. And I was like, oh my God. I cannot stand up straight. Yeah. Anyway. That's my drunk. Well, awesome. Do you guys want to move on to some questions?

We have so many. I tried to whittle them down to as few as possible, but there's still so many. Let's do it, yeah. The quality of the questions coming in from T.T.L. Nish is top-notch, cream of the crop. Cannot believe it. Agree. Yeah. So first one's kind of a fun one.

It's from Alana. Here's a fun question for you three. Don't think about it too hard. Here are the numbers we're working with. 8, 12, 24. And you have to divvy that up in miles of running, eating of donuts, and drinking beers. You have to choose a combination that includes all three numbers and all three activities to do in 24 hours. What combo would you choose, for example, 8 miles, 12 donuts, and 24 beers?

Which would be pretty brutal, I think. But there it is. So what do you guys think? 8, 12, 24. I would do 8 beers, 12 donuts, and 24 miles. Yeah, Sam. I think I would do 8 donuts, 12 miles. beers 24 miles i'm just like if we can do like a course just like a not that intensive of beer

it's like one an hour yeah every few hours i feel like you could do six in the afternoon sitting on the river or something no problem but 12 donuts i just feel like it would be so sick oh 12 donuts to me is like what most people's like let me have a bowl of cereal i'm like let me have 12 donuts no problem yeah no problem but the eight beers would be really challenging for me, I think. I don't really drink. I drink like eight beers a year. A 24 hours? Yeah, maybe I'd be fine. See, our problem is probably that we're thinking about this in terms of like a day. We're like, well, because we're not going to stay. No, we got to stay up. You got to stay up all night for this challenge.

To space it out. That's right. Well, good. Thank you for that one, Alana. That's a, that was a good little palate cleanser. Next question is from Lauren from Brockville, Ontario. Canada represent. Hey, Penf. P.E.N. NF, which is Paula, Eric, Nick, and Flynn, of course. I didn't have much of a spiel in my first email of questions, but I did want to say that I enjoy watching your vlogs every Sunday and now listening to the pod every Thursday. I first discovered you through one of Paula's 2020 Instagram Reels running in picturesque Canmore.

How appropriate. I thought, hey, I know that place. Little did I know I would get hooked on consuming TTL content and become a loyal fan. So the question for us three, have you had any close calls or do you have any wild bike stories with respect to car safety. It's always something I think about when I go out to ride, having heard bad stories from other people about road rage or getting hit.

With the amount of road riding you do, I thought you may have some stories, but hopefully nothing terrible. Also, how much does this factor into how you plan your ride? For example, staying off certain roads or at certain times of day. Thanks, Lauren. I've been hit, I've been, I've collided with cars twice or three times. I've had no incidents. But not angry cars.

Yeah. I see. Those were both, two of which were in college when I was living in Portland and just riding streets a lot. And, you know, people make a right turn right in front of you. And, like, you slam into the side of the car. And luckily, I was fine after both of those situations. And another one was, like, in a parking lot. That was just, like, low visibility situation and went over the hood.

The only time that I can think of recently, those were all, like, quite in the past is we got buzzed very, very dangerously close, in Bend on a rural road that normally has almost no, car traffic on it and just one freaking F-250 came by and like we went into the gravel. On purpose, do you think? Oh yeah. Very much so. Like slowed down to, you know, didn't initially go past us because there were our cars oncoming and then just got pissed that they were, you know, had to slow down for one second. And like, yeah, I went into the gravel otherwise would have been hit by the mirror. It's crazy because for those of you who have not been to Ben, it's like bicycles everywhere. So if you're angry at bicycles and bend, you're just going to have a bad time all the time, it seems like. Yeah. And that's a bit of the problem with it there is prior to Ben becoming a big

bike hub, it was very much more rural and people that are not excited about bikes. And bikes sort of represent Bend becoming what, you know, ruining what they perceive Bend to be. And so they're not happy about it. And it doesn't take long to get outside of city limits and kind of be in that sort of zone. Got it. Paula, what about you? You said nothing? Yeah, I've had no collisions.

And I think part of that is just because my risk and tolerance level for busy roads is pretty low. So I generally avoid them. And obviously, you can't completely avoid them when you're training for triathlon like we do. But I'll definitely opt for Zwift over like a busy weekend road that Eric is a little more comfortable on. But knock on wood, yeah, I haven't any big problems. I think it is really important.

though as you start training more, just have intervals to do where you're on your TT bike, because those are especially dangerous to choose quieter roads, choose days to do your key workouts that are not the weekend, when there might be a lot of tourists out or a lot of people out driving. It's becoming more and more, like, it's scary and it's not good, but it's becoming more common to hear about kind of bike car incidents. So that's where Swift comes in handy or just gravel riding is really popular now for that reason. And for everyone's safety, I think it's good to definitely be aware of it.

High visibility, bike lights, stuff like that. And time of day, I think, can make, at least in California, in Los Angeles, time of day makes a very big difference. Yeah. Have you had issues? Yeah. I got hit once on PCH, actually, which is always a place that I'm the most kind of stressed. Up and down about.

But it's the best for TT riding, for sure. I, a Prius, like, clipped my, like, the throughout. axle on my rear wheel. And so I was able to stay up. I didn't go down. I was like riding on the right and he turned right into me like hit the front of his car hit the back, the rear axle. And he got out and he was like shocked. And he was telling me that I need to be careful. I was just like, I was like, okay, I mean, I have my GoPro here with the footage. If you like, if you have a problem, we could for sure, like, I'll take down information. You take mine. But I don't think it's going to end up very well for you. because I kind of ripped his front bumper kind of like ripped off a bit.

Like it caught on my through axle and I kind of like ripped it off the body a little bit. And you didn't even fall. Yeah, it was kind of strange. I don't know how, but I was like slip and sliding around but didn't even have to put a foot down. Wow. I got very lucky. Very lucky. It was very slow.

I was probably going like 15 miles an hour or something like that. I was sitting up at the time. But yeah. And now I'm like, not now, but I'm always, if I ride PCH like that, I try to go real early. That was a sad question. That was a scary question. Yes, but you know what? People, this is like, this is our reality of the sport.

Like, when I am about to go out for a ride that has a lot of traffic, I can just feel this baseline of stress is raised. Yeah, same. And when I go out to a ride where I'm like in the mountains with like dead end roads that just go up into hills, I'm just so chill. Yeah, I agree. It definitely makes a difference. And if you have a trainer at home, then you have even more options.

Yeah. Great. Well, thank you for that question, Lauren. Next question is from David in Surrey, British Columbia. Hey, team, so stoked for my new TTL, T shirt, and water bottle. I just raced my second try in Olympic in Bellingham, Washington, and the bottle kept me hydrated on the bike. Awesome.

Speaking of the bike, it seems both Paula and Eric, I don't know about your race strategy, Nick, sorry, both hit the bike hard and worry about the run when it comes. How do you balance your effort to hit it hard while still having enough in the tank to run well? Is it just your experience, or do you use a specific strategy? That's a great question because it seems like pros and amateurs attack the bike very differently. Yeah, the way to prepare for that is to get really, really, really, really fit. It's really the only way to be able to attack the bike and still be confident you can run off it is just training, honestly.

Because we do, actually, this is an interesting question because I race that TT race, not to bring that up again, but that didn't have a run after it. and my mentality was different. And even though I attack triathons, thinking like I'm going to go as hard as I can on the bike, the run is always in the back of your mind and you're holding back like a slight bit no matter what. Even if you're not thinking of it. It's there.

Your body knows it's coming. Yeah. So I did have that like extra 5 or 10% with the TT knowing that was going to be done when I crossed the finish line of that. Yeah. But I think that practicing brick runs and then also doing some of your run sessions under fatigue,

not necessarily off the bike, but just considering. consecutive days maybe to your bike workouts. So you're not running fresh all the time is good practice because you're never going to feel fresh off the bike in a triathlon. So it's a bit of a false sense of bounciness and freshness. If you go do all of your hard runs when you're feeling really fresh and recovered, go do some hard runs when you're tired to get used to it. And do you think that if you were trying to solo time trial a 70.3, just get your best possible time. Do you think you would hit that bike as hard right off the bat or would, since you don't have race dynamics and not going with people?

No, there's still a run, but you're not trying to stick with a pack on the bike, you know? You're trying to get your fastest possible overall time. Do you think you would bike differently or still you think you'd go and just like hammer it on the bike right off the bat? Well, no, no, is evenly paced watts as possible. I never do that, though. I still struggle a little bit with pacing and my watts always drop up. off in the second hour. And a part of that is just the nature of our races where you're just trying to get to the front of the race or stay with the front of the race. It might be different if I was

doing like a solo time trial. But I definitely tend to overestimate what my watt capability is for a two hour race and then drop off a bit. But I feel like that's okay. Yeah. I mean like the 70.3s that I have won were completely solo time trials. Steelhead and Santa a cruise. Yeah, you're both totally solo and I, like, my average power is 310 and my normalized power was probably like 312. Right. Like, ultra, ultra, steady.

Yeah. But then Alcatraz, you were alone, but it was the opposite of that. It was like so spiky. Yeah, yeah. Because of the course. That's just the course. And, yeah, like, I dictated the pace for most of that race this year. But it was just by nature of uphill and downhill.

It was more like doing hill repeats than a, you know. time trial. I'm getting so excited thinking about being able to see you guys race just talking about this. I cannot wait. It's going to be so great. Well, now we're getting nervous. Okay, no, it's great. It's going to be great. Okay, thank you for that question. David, we got a lot of Canadians writing in. This is great. Edmonton's going to be a party. We appreciate that, Canada. Thank you. The next question is from Ian. Dear Flynn and Company, firstly, thanks for everything you do. my wife and I are longtime fans of the vlog and your merch gear, and now loving this podcast too. I got a huge buzz from chatting to some other members of the hashtag TTL Nesh.

Naish spelled N-E-I-G-H-H-H-H-S-H-H at a local sprint triathlon here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Oh my gosh, another Canadian. The community is bluing. Excuse me for being greedy, but I have two questions. One, van life. Do you have any tips for doing the van life with? bikes. Oh, yes, he does. We are going to be dabbling in this in a few weeks and would welcome any insight from the seasoned gurus like yourselves. For example, how to prevent bikes from falling

around in the back while driving. Less obvious things that you've added to your must remember to pack list over time. So that's the first one. Do you have any short little things that you wish you knew now that you didn't know when you first started? Specifically with bikes? Yeah, with bikes and van life. Like the mounts you have in the back. How crucial way of those. Very, very crucial. Yeah, our van is set up so that our bed is above our bikes and you have to take the front wheels off, but not the back wheels

off when I made the bed like exactly the right height so that my saddle clears it. You know, Paula's saddle's clear it by an inch or something. And we have a pretty sweet fork-mount system in there that actually locks. Each individual one could lock down if we wanted to. You leave the through axle in the fork and then it clamps around

that that's the best system that I've found. I mean, I feel like that's the biggest thing. Like, not having your bikes smashing against anything else or tipping over or like the wheels bumping into things. Once you've got those in there, then you can kind of like, you can put the wheels in between the bikes, you can put stuff in between the bikes and you can kind of like build out your whole strategy back there. So like nothing is like can shift that much. Yeah. But it sounds like, and that sounds like when I've seen it, like everything you have that's permanently there has a place. Like the trainer has a place. And it's like, strapped down, your running stuff has a place and it's in a little baggy in the corner, right?

Like, everything is well organized. It's not just bikes back there and then throw an extra wheel and whatever. You really thought about where to put everything. So maybe, maybe like do things with intention. Make a list of what you really want in there and find a good place for it. Yeah, that's also, there is a bit of a process to like, you realize after your first layout, we'll say, or, you know, however deep into this you're going, oh, we really really didn't need that or we really used that so much and it was annoying that it was in the bottom of the drawer so they put it in the top of the drawer the next time or whatever and um like paula and i when we got this current van basically we lived with we did vanness with it with just the bed

in there we didn't have like insulation in the walls and we just had some big storage cubbies and then it really kind of gave us an idea to get a feel for the inside of it and and look at a lot of different options and decide what was important for us to actually bring on every trip and what should be in the van at all time so that we could make a quick getaway, you know, et cetera. And then we like, I sort of built a structure around, yeah, where were the trainers going, where are the bikes going, well, that all clear. And then Paula had, you know, basically all of the ideas when it came to, well, we need band-aids and we need, we should have oatmeal and, you know, just like more simple things that I

would forget and just be starving when we're camping or, you know, you know, we should. know, whatever it is. I just organized the van. I had no part in building it. Yeah. But it's definitely a... Yeah, we did a lot of talking about... Collaborative effort. What should be in there and then try to design it on that. And we have four fork mounts in the back. I think we could fit five if we wanted. Yeah. And it's, you know, four is good. You can each bring a TT bike and then a fun bike. We're even getting to the point where we each want to bring two other bikes besides our TT bikes.

So you could also have racks on the back or on the roof, but we really like having the bikes inside the van for security and safety. and actually each of our locks for the fork mount do have their own actual lock as well so you can key lock the bikes into the van. So if someone does manage to get into the van, they're going to have a really hard time getting those bikes out. Yeah. Yeah, and it's just another layer of protection. Rip the screws out of the floor. Right, right.

Yeah, so we do have like a couple of fork mounts now on the ladder on the back of the van, and those are like exclusively for we're road tripping to a place. Right. You know, and I'm not leaving. Never leaving it on there. No, no, no, no. Because we did have a bike stolen off the back of a car in Seattle just while we were having coffee once. Wow.

When it was locked on and everything, and they just cut everything. Middle of the day. Yeah. Wow. So should I have my bike built up for when you guys come or should I keep it in the case? What do you think? We'll have enough room that you can keep it in the case. Okay, cool.

We can even just put it on the bed. Well, Nick's going to be on the bed. Oh, you think you're going to sit up there. Mothers, cover your ears. Yeah, that's right. No, there's a whole complicated seatbelt system up there. You just wouldn't understand it. Yeah, exactly.

And the second question was Grizzlies. I nervously LOLed at Paula and Eric's tempo run bear spray logistics, all with hyphins between it, on the latest vlog. But I have to ask, did you not consider just getting two cans of bear spray? I think TTL reached peak terror during Paula's selfie debrief while Eric was still out running. Thanks again, sending high fives and good vibes. Yeah, that was dumb. You're right.

That was super dumb. We actually own three or four. We just only had one in the van that day. And for some reason, didn't think... Well, your dad was here. He had one. We didn't think forward enough to think, oh, we're going to be running separately. You know, usually one of us has one.

We're running together. It's fine. But that's why my logistics were like, how can we do this so that we're never more than a minute apart from each other? But then at the end, when I handed him off the bear spray, yeah, it was standing there without bear spray. And I don't know.

That road is, like, fairly well traveled, but you can never predict anything here. and the grizzlies have just been, I think, coming lower because it's still actually a lot of snow up high. And, like, it's been a weird cold year. So the bears are actually hanging out more in the valley. That's so funny. You said that. I was just in Sequoia this weekend, and I saw six bears.

I've never seen more than, like, one or two over, like, a few days period. But these are all black bears. So black bears are basically harmless. Like, they never really cause any trouble. So we were just looking at them, like, happy. but Grizzlies are scary. They could be dangerous. Yeah.

It really depends, too, if you, like, scare it or approach it in a bad, whatever. But it ended up being fine. You're right. We should have had to bear space. And we will next time. Cool. Cool. Well, thank you for that question, Ian.

Next question is, hey, Paula, Eric, and Nick. I was sick this weekend and laid on my couch rewatching every YouTube episode since 2019. I mean, hours and hours and hours of video. Oh, my gosh. That's crazy. So the question is probably most relevant to Paula. Triathlon has been rough on my hair. I notice more breakage around my hair line,

and I'm considering whopping off several inches to see if it'll stay healthier. I have long hair halfway down my back. Any tips for hair health with so much training? I'm particularly curious about swimming as the cap seems to pull on my hairline even with a long hair cap. My husband and I are real big fans

and have been loving the edition of the pod, hoping to meet y'all at Worlds this fall if you do a pop-up. Mallory Lamb. Well, that is long hair. I've never had hair that long. And I have pretty thick hair that never really has breakage issues. But every time I get my hair cut, surprisingly, the hairdresser lady, comments on how healthy my hair is. And I'm like, that doesn't make sense. Because I swim every day and I sweat all the time and I'm in the sun all the time. And I don't, I don't know, to do anything super special to look after it. But three things that I do that I think help are I do. I do. don't use like blow dryers and flat irons regularly. I think that can kind of fry your hair in addition to the chlorine and everything. I kind of like let it naturally air dry, which definitely isn't the best look, but I don't often have a reason to like do my hair. Number two is I put

bumble and bumble oil in. It's like this orange bottle and it, a lot of brands like Evita has it too. And it's just like a protection layer that I put in my hair after I shower and shampoo and conditioner. And it, it's not really greasy, but it does just kind of create this protective layer, I think, and keeps my hair a lot healthier and moist and doesn't dry out as much. And the third thing is I try to use expensive shampoo and conditioner and not just like herbal essence is what's on sale at the drugstore. I think that makes an enormous difference. And you don't need a lot of it. A little bit goes a long way. Like buy expensive Avita. shampoo and conditioner and you will not regret it. And it's stupidly expensive. It's like five times

as much as drugstore products, but it's five times better and doesn't have chemicals. It has good stuff in it, I think, and it like makes my hair feel a lot better. So those are my three tricks. Don't you shampoo every day? Oh yeah, and I also wash my hair after every swim. That's crazy. I mean, I think most people do not shampoo every day. So I've heard my whole life, I've heard that it's not healthy for your hair to shampoo every day. But man, your hair looks amazing. And you've abused the crap out of it. Swimming every day is not healthy for your hair.

Yeah, if you're in a chlorinated pool, I feel like washing the chlorine out of your hair is better than leaving the chlorine in your hair. Yeah, that might be true. Because the reason people say not to shampoo every day is because it kind of like rips the oils off your scalp and your hair. It's like, okay, well, chlorine probably does that too. So you might as well at least do something that's designed for hair after that. Yeah.

And again, using, like, good shampoo and conditioner and then putting that oil in after, I think it makes it interesting. Yeah, I wonder if that oil is a big part of just, like, preventing 10% more chlorine from, like, soaking in during the swim. Like, hair people would tell me that back in the day. They'd be like, well, if you can just, like, do a quick condition before you, like, get in the pool. I'm like, yeah, that's not happening. But, like, that will ultimately, like, your hair's already absorbed something and it can absorb less chlorine, theoretically. My tip would be to come from 13 generations of a lineage of. male pattern baldness, so you never have to worry about this.

Yeah, you're looking great, dude. Thank you. Appreciate it. Can't see the chlorine at all. I'm very aerodynamic like this. That's why I keep it. I just looked it up. It's called Bumble and Bumble, hairdresser's Invisible Oil.

It's in an orange bottle. A little bit goes a long way, and it's $50 for 100 milliliters. But it lasts like two months probably for me. So do you use a milliliter a day? Yeah, I don't know. Paula, you better win the PTO to be able to afford this shampoo. So I can keep oiling my hair. I know. So ridiculous. You don't even want to know what Flynn's shampoo costs. We know Flynn lives better life than we do. Also, another quick thing, this is getting,

I'm dragging on so much, but people spend so much on cosmetic products, like face creams, face makeup, whatever, which I don't. Like, I buy nice face lotion, but otherwise I'm not spending that much money. So I feel like the hair is a good investment. Oh, of course. And we all have our things. Like, if you look at Trixie, the amount of money she spends on different cosmetic stuff, I mean, she has a cosmetics brand now, so it's different. But, like, trickster people that really like tricksy, they spend tons of money on makeup. Yeah, thousands of dollars. Well, hopefully that helps.

Those are some tips from Paula who has... That was a ton. That's great. I love it. This is what makes this podcast fun. We're not deep into the science all the time. We're living that triathlon life, not that triathlon race day. Okay, well, thank you for that question.

Next question is, hey, leaders of TTL N-N-A-Y-3-3-3-3-3. E's, three S's and two H's, long-time listener, first-time caller. A coffee question for Eric, what would you suggest for a first espresso machine and grinder? I'm searching for one that's relatively easy to use and learn on, but still will make a decent espresso. My budget is about 5 to 750. I have been looking at the Breville Barista Express because it has the grinder built in. So if you have a specific recommendation for him, maybe that would be good, but I'd also be interested in like, what should we be looking at? What kind of things should we be looking at for a good beginner espresso machine? That's the one. You found it, the Breville Barista Express. That's what we have here

in Canmore. With the built-in grinder. With the built-in grinder. Yeah. When we were here during COVID, sorry, I won't steal the question away from work. But when we were here during COVID, we left our fancy machine in Oregon. And we were trapped in the house and we really wanted good coffee. So we went to the bay and bought a thousand dollar machine, the Brevel Express that you're talking about, which is about 7.50 US, I would say. And it's been amazing. Like, Eric makes me coffee every day with it. It tastes just as good as what he makes at home. Basically, you give up just a little bit of control with it versus, like, a top, no, I shouldn't say a top, but a baseline prosumer type of model, like what we have at home. You just, you just get a little bit more control over the

grind setting and everything, which is really crucial for espresso. And you get more control over, like, just the temperature of the water and just some things. So it is possible to get a lot better shot with what we have at home and bend, but it's not a lot of people are going to notice the difference, to be totally honest. And you can do so much with that brevel machine. It's got like 20 different grind level settings, and you can run it manually so that it dispenses water for 30 seconds

instead of just like it takes a guess and 100%. Yeah, great to dinner. It makes you feel like you're making, like, being a barista without having to be an expert at it. Whereas it, the one we have at home, I'm intimidated by it. I never even touch it because it's such a science and an art and almost like a hobby to be able to get it exact. Whereas the brevel takes a little bit out of that. So, yes, it's more automatic, but it still goes through the process of grinding beans, having a tamped, whatever. I don't know about stuff.

I feel like it's got to be like 20%. more forgiving. You know, just it's like less, the less fineness of control, just, it's like a Honda versus a Ferrari. Like, it's, you know, it's going to work really well more often. Is it going to work the best? No, but it's like really, really good all the time, you know? And what about, so obviously this is a good one for this, for Sam here.

But what about if, like, what if I want like a cheap one off of Amazon or something? Is there something I should be looking for that it has? or doesn't have some kind of features that you think are like, that's really going to make your life much better? Or should that be avoided at all? I just, I would just say really, like, do not go below this level of machine. I just, I think below this level, it's just, it's really hard to make an espresso machine that isn't going to break pretty quickly

and just kind of like, yeah, just be broken and sitting on the counter. This is like, these last a long time. I don't know how long, but ours is a. lasted a couple years here in Canmore. And it just, if you want to get into espresso at home, that should be the starting point. Or you, and it just go up from there and accept that this is kind of an expensive hobby and a thing, you know. It's not a budget thing.

Cool. Next question. I had a question come to mind seeing your video of the Canadian TT Championships. So for Paula, say theoretically that a UCI world team gave you an offer to be a TT specialist and domestic. Would you ever consider that? How far off do you think you are from that level? What would that contract value have to be for you to consider that?

Everyone has a price. Wow. So... Funny you ask. Yeah. I would consider it. It would have to be a lot of money because I feel like I'm doing well in triathlon right now with all of my sponsors combined and the prize money earning potential.

So I feel like it would have to be over $100 grand. Yeah. Oh, of course. Are you kidding? You might make $100,000 on Saturday. Well, prize money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's pretty unique.

But just to like make up for the sponsors I would have to lose. Yeah, yeah, right. Signing with the team. I think a big component of it just like from my perspective, if I was in that position, it would be the lifestyle change. Because like pro cyclists travel a lot. And it's not, oh, I'm just going to pick which race I want to go to. It's like the team's going to these 14 races.

Yeah, and you have to train with the team. You can't just live and bend and do your stuff as usual. Right. Maybe you can, though. I don't know, actually. If you're like, hey, I'm going to show up and win the TT and then just soft pedal the rest of the stages. I don't know. Right.

That's kind of what we were wondering. I was like, what are the chances of that versus a team being like, oh, no, we're paying you 100 grand. And we want you to be the first and second and third person in the leadout train. Right. That's the problem is to practice that. And chase down every breakaway. Right. And all that.

That's what I feel like, Paula, you definitely have the fitness to do it. I just, I feel like I fear like your confidence in like a group race. setting like that because I'm scared of it. I'm better than you would think because I did I do you. Yeah. I'm not that good at it, but I could get better, I think. It's something I'm not like totally foreign to. Yeah, like we always talk about. There's a big difference between we're like riding on the side of the highway with semi-trucks and it's a closed course and there's a bunch of bikes.

Yeah, that's different for sure. If EF education, if you're listening, the answer might be yes. They have really cool. The F education, yeah, just send me the contract. I'll look it over. Don't worry about it. I briefly listened to ProTri News today, their podcast, with Kyle, just because I'm friends with Kyle and Talbot.

And Mark Matthews was like, because they were talking about how there's no like real firepower on the bike in the PTO Eminton race. Like, Danielle is not there. Kat Matthews isn't there. And then someone brought up me. And Kat Matthew's husband's like, well, how hard actually is it to win the Canadian title? And I'm like, you don't know how hard it was. You don't know what my waltz were. I'll go head to head with Cat Matthews any day and do a T-T race against her.

Fire on the pod. It would probably be a close race, but I don't think I'd be out of the equation. I don't know. Cat Matthews, the Mount Lemon Q-O-M is just sitting there. You can go 365 days a year. You can go for it. No. I'm not attacking Cat or Mark, but I'm just saying that. Yes, we are.

This is a fight. Yeah, that race was harder to win than you think. T-TL pod battle. There was like, yeah, Canada's not the deepest ever cycling country, but there were like some pro-tour girls there that left to go race in the Giro de Talia right after. Yeah, right. Just happening. So, so there. Yeah, I love it.

So there you go. That's Paula's answer for you. Sam finishes with thanks for everything that you do and the impact you've had on all our lives. Of course. Our pleasure. Wow. Next question from Taylor Brinkman. Dear Paula, Eric Nick and Flynn, longtime viewer slash.

listener, first time emailer. I have to start with the thanks slash apology to Paula. Oh, this is a good one. I was one of the male age groupers. She rolled through on her second lap of the run at 70.3 Chattanooga. I got to run with her for a quarter to half a mile and was so excited that I took the opportunity to give all my shoutouts to the motto. I found out after the race that it was never included on the broadcast. But of course it wasn't because some age grouper, me, was blowing up Paula's spot. So thanks Paula for giving me a cool try geek moment. And sorry. I may have ruined your TV time. My daughter would have been so geek to see me actually running with Paula.

We watch the vlog most Sundays, and it is one of the few ways we can connect over my hobby. That's so nice. That's amazing. And you know, it's cool. When you're out there on the race course and a pro comes by,

it is a very cool feeling for us age troopers. You're just like, whoa. Yeah, that's right. They're out here doing the same thing. No need to apologize. There you go. So on to the questions. I'm so jealous.

Oh, sorry, one more thing. If you're out on the race course and you see Eric or Paula, and you want to give them a cheer, that is never bad. Like, always feel free to cheer them on. Not necessarily stop and have a chat, but you can always be like, go Eric, go Paula, right? Yeah, totally. Okay, on to the questions. I'm so jealous of Flynn's trail skills and general ability to run in the close proximity off leash.

I have two athletic dogs, picks attached, who would probably love to do the sort of stuff that Flynn does, but I know they'd be lost in the bush chasing some squirrel if I let them off leash. How did you train him to run on the trail with you? Is it just practice? Oh, how the vlog can be deceiving. No, he's good. I mean, he's good. I've been on plenty of runs with you guys where he runs ahead and we have to like call him ahead.

In bend, he's worse. It's so crazy. Because he knows it maybe. He knows the trails and he goes so much further. Well, you can also run off trail a lot easier. Like the bend forest is much less dense. Yeah. Than like Portland or here in Canada,

at Western Canada. so he can like he can zigzag like in insane amount and sometimes occasionally he will get a he'll forget how much he's wandered and he'll kind of get lost and then you have to stop and call and bend but here he's like five feet in front of us and all time and like to his defense the only times i've had problems with that is when he's come back from a week at my friend danny's house for dog sitting are we blaming danny for this no it's not danny's fault it's just that like at Danny's house, he winds to go out. And since they're on a farm, he just, he'll go out for like an hour.

And he'll just come back when he feels like coming back. And it's not a concern about him running away or anything. So it's like, I feel like he just gets into a different headspace of like, oh, I'm out. I run wherever I want. And it takes him a couple of runs to like remember, oh, I'll just get left if I'm not like kind of paying attention to where my human is. Because the human is moving. They're not in a house stationary. Yeah.

But to answer the question. more specifically. I think his breed a little bit is a, every pointer we've met on trails has like a shot collar, like a, what do you call them? Not shot collar. A training collar type of thing. We've never used one with Flynn.

And maybe we're just lucky that he doesn't like, he has a little bit of nervousness about losing us. So therefore he's really attentive. And Eric's been taking Flynn on this mountain bike loop. And the other day we ran it. And Flynn was obviously with us. And it was insane how impressive it was that Flynn knew every turn to take. Like every time there was a fork, he knew which way to go.

And it's just because he's done it like twice before. He has this insane memory. So it takes away all the fear I have of if he got lost, he could probably find his way back. And not only that, he also like, I don't know how we got lucky with this, but every time there is a fork in the trail, he stops and waits for us. Because he's like, I don't know a way to go. Yeah, if it's a trail, sometimes around the house, like I'll make sure that I always run a different route and take a different turn at each trail.

That way, like, he'll never go so far ahead because he doesn't know, like, oh, we always go straight here. You know, it's not as much of an issue on the mountain bike because I can always catch up to him. Basically, he has a PhD. A puppy homing device. Yeah. No, I wish I knew, like, a good rule for training, but just, like, at the end of the day,

ultimately, the dog, like, coming back to you has to be more exciting than whatever they're doing. So if you need to go running with a freaking steak in one hand, like, that's what you got to do. But a lot of dogs are never going to... Flynn doesn't have like this killer squirrel instinct where he's going to stop everything he's doing to chase a squirrel. We're lucky with that.

Because a lot of dogs, you can't train that out of them. And it's just like they're going to go chase any animal they see. So Flynn's not like that. Yeah. Cool. Well, Taylor finishes off by saying thanks for all the great content. Looking forward to continue following you all on your journey. Thank you, Taylor.

Yeah, thank you. I want to take a moment here to say that I think last week I talked about and I posted on my Instagram that a part of my bento box on my race bike was destroyed and Canyon didn't have it in stock and I had so many people message me trying to help out like people who wanted to like they're like Googling stuff like the canyon Canadian store the Canyon Australian site may have it like super nice people Jordan Blanco ended up being a savior and sent me her she had an extra one and she mailed it to me. next day. So I finally did get it. So thank you for everyone who reached out. She is so generous.

She is amazing. So thank you, Jordan. So, so, so, so thankful for that. And a lot of people had the idea a 3D print box. And I think I probably had like 20 people to be like, hey, 3D print it. I'm like, okay. Do you have a 3D printer? I feel like there's like, I feel like there's, I said that as well. I feel like there's an Etsy. There's got to be like an Etsy version of 3D print where you're just like, where it's like we work. And you say, here's a picture of the thing that I have. And here's a couple of measurements and like 15 people bid on 3D printing it for you. Yeah, right, right. But anyway, Jordan Blanco, thank you so much.

You just saved my life and I'm going to use the bento box at the race this weekend. Next question is from Grant. Hi friends, Nick Paul, Eric and Flynn. Thank you for consistently putting amazing content out there. I recently did a deep dive on the TTL YouTube channel and I'm loving the older content. I have a couple of questions. One, what size saddle do you guys use? It looks like the Satero comes in a 130 and a 150.

and I'm struggling to figure out which was best for me. Well, what size you guys use and what size they need may not be the same, but how does someone find out what saddle size they are, especially with like the Satero or something like that? I feel like that might be a thing you have to sit on. I know Retool has like a crazy sit-bow measuring device. So if you go in for like a good specialized retool fit, you can sit on that puppy and it will tell you.

Maybe you don't even need to do the full retool fit, though. If you go into a shop, maybe they just let you sit down on it. Every shop that I've been to. has one. You just sit on it for like 15 seconds until it depresses this foam. And then when you get up, they measure the distance between your sit bones. And it correlates perfectly to whatever specialized to set the Satero needs. Boom. To answer your question, I think we both read 130. Yeah. And I need like a double the maximum size. So I have the power saddle on my specialize

and I definitely have the 155 for that. And the second question was, do you have a favorite pair of cycling shoes? And do you wear a different pair for training? versus racing. Yeah, yeah, we do. We both really like S-Works shoes. I'm still waiting for mine, but the S-Works shoes are the only shoes that I have, like,

paid full retail price for on multiple occasions. I've just, like, gone to my friend who has a specialized store in Portland where I get fits and just, like, literally giving my credit card and just be like, I don't know, do not want to know what they cost.

Oh, you definitely don't, yeah. Just like, I need them. Thank you. and that's the only thing I, like, have ever bought retail with cycling in, like, years and years and years of working at bike shops. Yeah, they really work with your feet, I guess. That's great. Yeah. But, yeah, we also do use different shoes for training and racing.

Really? Oh, that's true. Paula, I, yeah, I have tri shoes and road shoes. I just wear my road shoes for the try. Yeah. Even when you do the Olympics and stuff, Paula? Yeah. They're a little hard to get in with the boa, but it's definitely doable.

And you, are those ones that you, like, kind of fast, your own loop in the back, a heel loop? Yeah, you can do that. But that's like if you're using elastics and having the shoes all set up, which a lot of age groupers wouldn't bother doing anyway. So you can use either road or tri-shoes. A lot of the times I feel like the road shoes, you can get a lot more secure and snug with the boa.

Definitely, yeah. So that's why I like racing on them. I will say that Specialize has discontinued their tri-shoe that I love the most. And that's part of why Paula uses the boa one. So I'm using the Shimano shoe currently, the TR9, which is basically the same exact upper sort of style with like a two-strap. But he will be wearing specialized shoes soon. Yeah, yeah. We'd love to.

Just waiting for those pupsies to show up in the mail, J.B. But it seems like even outside of U-2, it seems like most pros that race 70.3 and full distance, they don't wear tri-shoes. It seems like most pros wear like a well-designed, comfortable road shoe. Maybe a 50-50. Oh, you think 50-50? No, in racing, I mean. Oh. 50-50.

That kind of depends. Yeah. If you found a tri-shoe that feels snug or not. Yeah. Well, for me, like, I wear my tri-shoe for everything, and I kind of like that it's a little more open because I notice that my foot expands over the course of like a two, three, four-hour ride.

Unfortunately, that is 100% of the exact opposite of what you should be doing, Nick. I cannot handle that you train in tri-shoes. It's because I want my foot to get used to it. It's the worst. That's fair. And I need to get special shoes for my wide Hobbit feet. Well, you know what? You should just train in your arrow helmet too so you can get used to that.

Speaking of which, I think I'm only going to bring my arrow helmet. Is that a bad idea? No, that's totally fine. That's acceptable on race week. I love it. I love it. I love the trash talk, Eric. P.S. I aspire to be as good at working on bikes as Eric.

Good luck at all the upcoming races. Thanks, Grant Villager from Indiana. Next question is Hey Flynn, Nick, Paula, and Eric Just mixing up the order Just wanted to say Love the show and the channel Have to say the mix of y'all three's personalities

Really make the channel work well With not only information but entertainment Love it Will we ever see a podcast YouTube channel in the future? Should we answer this? I feel like we still need to make up our minds about this Yeah, I mean we can tell you It's like sort of what we're thinking

But personally, I don't really want to do it without seeing like us talking, like an actual visual of us talking. I went and watched some podcasts that post visuals to YouTube. Like I think Rich Roll does it occasionally and obviously Joe Rogan. And I think seeing the facial expressions really is what makes it. Otherwise, I would 100% put on Spotify or whatever instead. So if we can come up with a way where it makes sense and it's cool, then yeah. But we haven't figured out yet.

Yeah. We just talked about it before we started recording. is like kind of the pros and cons of doing that and like making its own YouTube channel or putting it on the That Triathlon Life YouTube so we got some ideas but we got to figure out what we really want. Yeah.

That was from Jay. He said TTL Nacionale, which is Italian for Nation. That's not actually totally right. Nacional is like national. So TTL National is what he's saying. What would it be properly in Italian? Natsione is nation.

I like that like a thousand times better than nation. Yeah. Oh, I know you. do Eric. I can get in. Eric, the more you tell me you don't like Nash, the more I want to use it. Well, I mean, it's like basically it's in the same sort of quiver of words as merch. I see. Yeah. It's like the same thing. Right. My mom loved when you were talking in Italian last week, by the way. Yeah. So let's do that more. Perfect. We'll do that. Yeah. Anyone is listening who's Italian, you should write your questions in an Italian. Yes. And you can put in some bad words because no one's going to know what I'm saying.

Next question is, hey everyone, first off, thank you for producing encouraging content. I'm a blue-collar guy, family man with two kids. He gave us some background on his life situation right now, but the gist of it is any advice on training so I can continue working and not be sore. He wants to do a full-distance Iron Man in two years. We don't do the fulls, just for one thing, so we'll be taking our best guess. I think people get, they put their sights on full distance. Like it's, like that's the finish line. That's the goal.

And I guess there's nothing wrong with that. But I do think there's something wrong with rushing to get there. Right. Like if you're trying to develop this healthy relationship with a sport, which is what we all trying to do, then just take your time and spend a year on sprints or two. Spend a year or two on Olympic distance. Spend three years or whatever on 70.3 and get really full. familiar with the distance and get really comfortable with knowing what your body needs,

instead of jumping into this thing that is a full Iron Man, which can be extremely, extremely hard on your body. Yeah, I would agree. Like, if possible, and if you're not in a rush to get there, like, when it feels right, when you're like, man, I just feel like I'm finishing sprints with so much energy, move up and et cetera, et cetera. You know, not to like, I don't want to be like, oh, your big goal is you're dumb. or too soon or whatever.

But we here at TTL certainly champion a little bit, like a long-term approach to it and let it happen a little more naturally. And I think that will ultimately help with a soreness question if you're building gradually through the volume of training it takes to get to an Ironman. We don't know if he's new to the sport, though. Did he say that?

He is, yeah. Yeah. Oh, he is, okay. Yeah, but also if that is your ultimate goal, I don't think that two years is too short of a time to build up to that. It's definitely possible. It's definitely possible. You will be sore.

I think from the background information he gave, he's new to all three sports. And he's trying to do a 5K in four weeks. And he's like, how do transitions work? Why no socks? Boys, what is with the shaved legs? You know, so it's like, I think it's starting really fresh. Yeah. In that case, I would totally recommend, like you guys were saying, start with a sprint, do an Olympic, do halves for a year, and then maybe see if you want to do a full iron band.

I promise you, racing an Olympic really hard is really hard. It's racing a sprint really hard is really hard. It's not like you're going to finish those and be like, oh, that was easy. At any distance, when you push yourself, it feels really hard. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to really. to this, like, in terms of, like, dirty Canza, right? Like, oh, I went and rode 20 miles on my bike really hard.

People are like, okay, sick, you know, but, like, 200 miles of gravel in Kansas. It's like, whoa. Like, the idea of can I even finish is the excitement of it. So I get it. Yeah, yeah. For sure. But, like, yeah, anytime you're going for something like that, there's going to be, there's going to be soreness.

Yeah. And you're going to be riding the line of, like, can your body handle this? And you have two kids at a job. It's a lot of time to train for an ironman. Three sports. That's a lot of time. But hopefully that helps. But yeah, we've said it before in the pod, but we like this long-term approach to triathlon.

It's not just like, let's do this cool thing. We said it before and we'll say it again. Iron Man is just not worth it. It's crazy. You're just seeing your training neck. I'm like, no, thank you. That looks horrible. Okay.

Next question is from Luke. Hello, T, T, T.L. Just a quick question about triathlon smack talk. My wife and I are from Edmonton and have been, have we gotten all Canadians? No, I guess the last guy was from Salem, Oregon. But yeah, we've got a lot of Canadians this time. My wife and I are from Edmonton have been doing triathlons and duathlons for a few years now

because we love how positive the atmosphere always is. Love that. But have any of you ever experienced being heckled at at a race? For example, Nick, if you end up racing Edmonton, I will be the one yelling, stay in your lane if I pass you on the bike. I would love that. First of all, you will not be passing me on the bike. How dare you?

Appreciate the work you all do. and put TTR content together and look forward to it each week. Best of luck in Edmonton, Luke. So I imagine in the pro field, there's got to be some people that smack talk. Like the Brownlee, no, I shouldn't even say the Brownlee's. Alistair Brownlee has like a massive reputation for being a bully and saying some ridiculous shit to people.

But outside of that, like, people will yell at you and ITU just to like do work and take a pull. get out of the way, but it's not, I wouldn't say that many people have like, like a sharp, any sort of wit to their comments. Right, right. I've just been like in a back with Bloom and Felt just screaming, go! Like, ah, dude, we're, we're going, but. That's great.

Paula, what about you? Anything? No, I've never been. No. That's kind of what I like about Triath. actually. It's like compared to road racing on a bike where people are constantly yelling at each other because no one wants to be in the front and everyone thinks you should be taking your turn and we're like, oh, go like bridge the gap to that breakaway or whatever. Triathlon, it's your own race. It has much more of this,

like, of the mentality from running where it's like we're all trying to do our best and we're going to help each other do our best. That's what attracted me, one of the main things that attracted me to the sport. Yeah, I agree. But if someone wants to heckle me on the race course, I'm all for it. It'll be in a humorous way. Yes, in a humorous way, of course. Yeah. Cool. Well, thank you for that question.

Luke. Next one, last one. I really enjoy everything you all are doing. It was definitely helped me remember to keep joy and happiness in the forefront. Keep it up. What do you do with all the swim caps you've gotten over the years from races and other things? I have a bag full of swim caps. Most I have no need or desire to keep.

But I don't want to simply throw them away. Any ideas? Thanks, Mike. Yeah, I read this question and it made me sad about the invite. because I have a bag of them too and I'm like, I don't know what to do with them. An art project. You can't make him into a quilt like you can with t-shirts.

Like a safety blanket. You'll just sweat and die in like 10 minutes. A trampoline. You can't take them to like goodwill. No one wants to wear your old swim cap. Yeah, trampoline. But the problem with swim caps as well is like if you just accumulate them in a bag, they do get crusty and moldy and especially if they're not silicone,

they'll just crack. So they unfortunately are garbage. which is so awful. Maybe you could like decline to take a swim cap at the next race you do and just say I'm going to use my own. They have to make sure that you're in the right group

and safety. They see you in the water. Yeah, I don't know. That's a tough one. I don't have any good solutions. And if anyone out there in TTLNH has a solution, like you know, a swim club who's in dire need of swim caps.

I mean, you know, you're a rubber recycling program. That's what it needs. Yeah, maybe we can start a program where we take old swim caps and make them into new TTIS. That's not a terrible idea, Paula. That's not a terrible idea. Yeah. Anyway. I never sent recycled T-TL swim caps.

Love it. The other thing I have is like bags of old race kits and bags of old goggles. Just like a lot of garbage that no one wants. Right. Oh. Oh, this is a great opportunity. Actually, we gave my dad like five boxes of very lightly used charles. Try gear a year ago and he was going to take it and give it to the youth triathlon team in Portland,

which unfortunately, like, right as that happened and we moved to Bend and everything, that tri team like sort of disbanded and most of the kids went to college. So he called me yesterday and asked if I knew what he should do with that, and I was just going to put up a thing on my Instagram. So this is a thing you can DM to me if you are like the leader of a youth tri club of some sort. And like we seriously have like helmets and glasses and bibs and kits. and like all sorts of stuff. We can just send it all to you.

And you can, hopefully give a good home to it. And if not, donate or like whatever. We are making the world a better place. That would make me so happy to know that all that stuff, like at least some of it found a home

instead of like going to a random goodwill where like people, like what is the chances that a tramping is going to walk in? Of course. That's way better. And included in those boxes will be about 200 swim caps. Right. And moldy. Yeah, that's great.

No, I love that. We should definitely do that. I'm going to look into the swim cap recycling thing. If there's some kind of program for it, and if there's not, I don't know if we could find something, some way to do it, and we'll address it on the beginning of the next pod. I'm sure we know a person who knows a person that can make it happen. Of course, of course. Well, those are other questions that we had.

You can send your questions in to That Triathlon Life brand at gmail.com. and the next one, I think we're going to be able to do in person. That'll be fun. We'll be in Edmonton together. Yeah, especially when you move your flight to make it later. I'll just move my flight to September, and then I'll just stay permanently in Cammoor. We are going to do a pretty kick-ass little mini camping trip to get home. So, you know.

Oh, I see. I'm just saying. You can always come with us. But next week we'll probably do a little recap on our races. Hopefully they were good races. All three of us will have a recap to do. And then maybe we'll get to some questions that we received this week. But yeah, it's going to be a hectic week.

So we'll see what we can do next week. But we really appreciate all the messages of support and cheering and everyone who's watching the race from afar or in person. If you are in Emmington for any reason, come say hi to us. We'd love to meet you. And Nick will be there, of course. But, yeah, any of the last week? It's going to be a good time. No, you crushed it.

That's great. I love it. I can't wait. I don't even want to think about it. But I can't wait for next Monday when it's all over. Yes, that's right. Cool. Well, thank you guys for listening. We'll catch you next week. Thanks, everybody.

Bye, guys. Ciao.