That Triathlon Life Podcast - How much to ride in aero for triathlon training, the post ironman blues, and more!

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

Things are back to normal in Bend and Los Angeles. Paula's quads have finally recovered, training is back on, and we've got a full question bag to get through. We open with a food theme Rapid Fire, check in on what post-race blues actually feel like after something as big as Lake Placid, and get into the philosophy of fear in sport: before races, before hard sessions, and why accepting the thing you're scared of is usually what makes it less scary. Then your questions.This week we discussed:Food rapid fire: favorite ice cream, juice, bagel, donut, and pasta sauce What post-race blues actually feel like after a big result — why the further you get from the day, the more you want to go backFear in sport: how pro athlete fear differs from age group fear, what makes race morning dread feel inescapable, and whether doing hard training sessions produces the same feelingThe best thing you can do to mitigate pre-race fear: start one month out, not the night beforeHow much time should you spend in aero position training for a 70.3? Jedi mind tricks for hard sessions and long racesMountain bike and off-road race passing etiquette: whose job is it to get out of the way?Was the women's finish line box-out at San Diego International Triathlon bad sportsmanship? Youth sports and raising athletic kids: what Paula, Eric, and Nick each took from childhood sportChallenge Roth 2027: all three are Roth curiousWhat influence has each other's racing had on what you want to do? Paula on Eric's ultras, Eric on Paula's IronmanA big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive. To submit a question and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldstone. Everything is back to normal this week. We are sitting in our home event. Nick is in LA. Training is back. Paula is pretty much over the soorness from Ironman Lake Placid. And we're going to have a show jam-packed full of questions from everybody who wrote in. So welcome to the show. Remember when I sometimes did the intro? Now you guys don't even ask me. You're just like, Like she for sure doesn't want to. Well, you said no enough times we stopped asking. Don't poke the bear. Yeah. Speaking of which, is this the longest you've ever been sore from a race, do you think? The longest? Yeah.

No, I think the duration was similar to when I've been sore in the past, but the severity of it was quite a lot higher. But basically, like, I did a run on Saturday. So almost a week later, six days. Five, six days later. And it hurt. Like, it was, I was sore. I mean, running at the coast, so it was hilly.

But I could do it. I still did 8K. And nothing in your body felt off when you did that. You just felt sore. It was just the same quads, soreness I had in the race, kind of just lingering. But, yeah, nothing else felt bad.

And if anything, I felt actually really good running everywhere else. Because I was, we were at sea level. I'd kind of rested all week. I was, yeah, I felt completely good. I would have gone for a long time if I wasn't sore. I thought it was funny. Like the day before or the day of Boise, we were watching and you're like, oh, I should have, I should have raced this.

And then in the afternoon you tried to go for that run. Like, no, no, I shouldn't have. Yeah, I was thinking about the pro series and like, oh, if I could just go to Boise and, like, get, you know, some points. I don't have to win. But I don't think I could have ran 21K on pavement. I know I couldn't have. Do you guys remember the two brothers?

that came to the donut run that race Placid. The Turnbulls? The Turnbulls? Yeah, the Turnbulls. Did they do Boise? One of them did the sprint triathlon Monday night after the Iron Man. Oh, God. In Placid? Yes. Well, he clearly didn't go as hard. Go hard enough on the marathon. That's how I am I. How could you possibly do that?

Yeah, that's super impressive. I couldn't have done that. I was worried about making it home. I couldn't even walk through the airport. What am we going to do with my legs? We had a tight connection because our flight was delayed on the way back. So we could have maybe made our flight, but I was like, there's absolutely no way I can walk more than one kilometer an hour. So I just rebooked our flights without even trying to make it. Yeah. You could have gotten the wheelchair at the jet bridge to bring you there maybe fast enough.

Anyway, I am a little burnt out on talking about it and a little like self-conscious of how much we've talked about it. I've done a couple podcasts with other people as well. And we still haven't even put out the long game episode, which Eric's working on now. So I appreciate all of the crazy support I got, but don't need to keep talking about my Iron Man. Although I said to Nick, I am an Iron Man now. So if you have questions about doing an Iron Man, I'm happy to drive it. Wait, okay. I have three things.

First of all, there is no long game episode yet, but there is a new YouTube vlog that is cool. and it has Eric building up bikes and you guys traveling. Yeah. That's out right now. On TTL. And you can watch that on the TTL YouTube channel. The second thing is, yes, you are maybe burnt out on it because you've done a thousand podcasts and talked about it nonstop.

And there's so much internet content that had nothing to do with you creating it that has been generated from this. But I think when people are asking questions, that's not the same as you bringing it up and talking about it. So we'll still field questions about it. Yeah. And actually, we had so many questions this week. every single one started with, congratulations. I wonder how long that's going to go for

because that was what happened to you, Nick. Yeah, of course. Nick still gets it. Did you see the one this week where someone at the end said, by the way, Nick, congratulations on your Ironman? Yeah, I did see that. I read them all, Nick. I'm not reading that one, but that was funny.

It was from Jeff, I think. And the last thing is, people talk, I think, especially as pros, about, I know this is not the same scale, but going to the Olympics and the feeling that you get as a pro athlete after the Olympics, whether or not you achieved what you were trying to achieve, even if you won, there's this feeling of emptiness, a post-race blues is often what it's called. I know this isn't the same, but do you have that at all with this?

Or in general, how are your emotions, like aside from your physical state? Yeah, the Olympics is brutal because it's like a four-year cycle and your entire quad is building up towards that day. and then only three people are happy with their race and then everyone else is like, what did I just do with four years of my life? I have nothing that I'm working towards anymore that feels as meaningful as that felt. It's different with Placid

because I was not like dreaming of it all my life and whatever. But it was a big lead-up. And then obviously it got more attention than I expected it would. People were really happy for me. I was super happy. And it's kind of crazy as the days go by. You want the day to not be far away anymore.

more like I want to go back to that day because it was so cool and not that I did it for the attention but like the further away you get from it the more people forget about it. It's such a fleeting success feeling and then it's like what's the next thing. So I don't know, that is something that everyone deals with when they race I think regardless of the result. And we get questions about this all the time. Like how do you set a next goal? How do you get excited about the next thing and not like lament on what that was. I do feel like as it's like I don't want the next thing to come because I liked that so much. You know? Yeah. That's how I feel. Eric, do you feel like you've had that in your life before too? I mean, I have that right now. Oh, from. About Placid? Yeah.

I mean, like my work was all about doing all this hype that, you know, Paula, like stresses Paula out, but I think is necessary and made help to contribute to the whole thing. And then right afterwards, like, oh, yeah, we did the thing. Oh, my gosh, that was peak and I'm exhausted. But also now I need to edit a video about it and go back to all the other things. And, yeah, big emotional letdown from just a thing that we've both been anticipating or looking forward to for six months. Right.

Okay, well, let's do this podcast. There's so many good questions this week. A lot of them do have to do with the race. And we're going to start out with a little warm-up with something we haven't done in a while, which is a rapid fire. We haven't done a jingle forever. I know. It's been too long. So this is a food-based one. Let's see if we can do the whole thing in under 60 seconds.

I'm looking at the clock starting now. Okay, favorite ice cream flavor. Whatever we had in Placid, that peanut butter. That we can't remember. Yeah. Well, mine was the maple creamy we had in Placid. Oh, that's right. That was so good.

Okay, favorite juice flavor. and we are counting aids like lime aid and lemonade. Okay, lemonade for me. Oh, wow. Limeade. Are you not answering, Nick? I figure you, I mean, I, yeah, I think you guys should just answer. Favorite bagel type?

Sesame seed. Or as Paul says, bagel. Yeah, sesame seed or plain with cream cheese. I've been really loving poppy lately. Oh, salt. Salt. Never mind. Scotchere everything I said.

Does jalapeno cheddar count, or is that just decadent disaster? No, that counts. It's so good. It counts, but it's disgusting. That doesn't count. It's so good. Favorite donut type? Chocolate dip.

Like the old fashioned, like crueler style, whatever. Yeah, those are so good. With glaze. And then final one, favorite pasta sauce. Del Grosso. Marinera. Love the Del Grosso. What is it, the firecracker?

Got a little heat to it. Fireworks. Fireworks. I like the spicy one. There we go. Was that under 40? I think that was. That was just under a minute.

especially when I edit it. Okay, now we're warmed up. We're going to get into questions. Before we get into questions, you can submit your questions. And oh, my God, have we been getting great questions and a lot of submissions? So keep them coming at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast, where you can also become a podcast supporter. And last week, we talked about podcast supporters several times.

If you became a podcast supporter last week, this week, you are going to get a video response to one of the questions that we're going to answer on the podcast this week. And it's about what kind of things we have on our computers during a race. And, you know, it's $5 a month. Guys, five, that's less than a chocolate chip cookie at one of the fancy coffee shops here. And you know what? I say, get yourself a chocolate chip cookie and become a podcast supporter. We live in a time of shameful abundance, also something we do for podcast supporters.

is give away a little TTL swag for them. Some really cool TTL gear. It's these swim caps, which I use every day at the pool and get compliments on. This is a really nice orca and TTL swim cap. It's the nice silicone ones, not the ones you get at races.

And this week's random podcast supporter winner is Ashley Wells. Ashley, thank you for being a podcast supporter. We have an address for you, but just make sure it's current. You can send me a message on Instagram and we'll get it sent out to you. Congratulations, Ashley.

And congratulations to us for having you as a podcast supporter. First question is from Brian. In L.B., do we think that's Long Beach? It is because he actually offered up his ADU for us to do a Kona training camp. Oh. How's Long Beach for training? It's not the best because you're far from the Santa Monica Mountains, but you can train in Palace Verides.

It's not quite the same. But it's not bad. It's still California weather. Yeah. It's like 30 minutes without traffic from here. It's the weather. Yeah. 30 minutes without traffic,

three hours and 30 minutes. Exactly. Exactly. Okay, here's a question. Hey, guys, at the amateur level, so many of us compete for a sense of accomplishment, feeling of community, self-validation, and other reasons that are so personal.

Hearing Paula use the word fear when talking about the full distance in the last pod was interesting. fear is an interesting word since fear can be different for so many people. At the elite level of triathletes, is that a fear of performance shortcomings with something new? I can't imagine the fear is the same fear as an age group or has of, I just don't know if I can physically complete the whole dang thing. There's a quote that summarizes what Paula was talking about on perspective. If you change the way you look at things, the things you will look at will change.

Wayne Dyer, thanks for all you do for the community. Brian and Long Beach. I feel like we had a philosophy lesson here and wrapped up in a question. Totally. I mean, I think we have like maybe a slight extra bit of fear as professional athletes because we have a lot wrapped up

and what happens with the result. It's public. You know, there's like the fear or the concern about how am I going to do and I'm going to let myself down versus the goal that I have mixed up with like the fear of public speaking that everybody has of like what I am doing and the performance that I'm about to do is going to be witnessed by a large group of people. And so those two things combined, I think could potentially make our fear reaction slightly more than your average age grouper.

That said, we've talked to so many people who have exactly, like Nick, you dread the night before in the morning of a race. And it's not like, you know, 10,000 people and your sponsorship contracts are on the line. So I do think that like that internal pressure on yourself of like executing on this big goal that you have is the strongest. It's the fear thing for me actually didn't even change when the podcast started. I've still had the fear before and still have the fear now. And I don't even know really what it. I think it's just entering into this thing that's going to be very difficult for this big block of time that is kind of inescapable. That's at least a part of it. And oftentimes when I'm suffering from that fear, I think of the,

both of you. Thank God. Imagine having the extra layer of expectation. Your self-worth wrapped up into it. You're living wrapped up in it. You know what I think stood up to me as you were saying that was this, you said this thing that's inescapable. I think if it was truly inescapable, a lot of that fear would go away. But your brain knows that you could not show up. Right. And I think that is extremely challenging. It's like the same thing Paul has been talking about with like not doing, you know, wanting to do long rides prior to doing Iron Man. And then all of a sudden, it's completely digestible. And she figures out her nutrition, et cetera. It's like once it feels like this is a thing I must do. And I think that's part of like the magic of flow state.

Those doubts disappear in that I have an out and you're just fully locked in on what do I have to do? Execute. Okay. So speaking of Execute, for both of you, do you feel like there are a series of things or certain specific actions that you can take to mitigate that fear a little bit beforehand. You know, Paul has talked about before, and this certainly I've now noticed helps me, is make sure all your stuff is dialed way before race night before the race, right? Like your bike is set, your stickers are on, your nutrition is set, don't do that at 6 p.m. the night before the race. Is there anything else that you feel, even just like a mental practice that you feel, has helped

Soothe that fear. I think that at least what I've noticed in myself is that mindset of like everything is dialed the night before the race backs up like a month out from the race. And if I haven't had a very good build and I've, you know, cut corners or just I'm injured or you're like whatever, if things aren't feeling quite right, then I find it way harder to do all the, cross all that, you know, tease and dot the eyes on race week versus if I kind of back started that process, you know, like X races in one month and I'm, whatever, you're eating better, cutting out the alcohol, like getting better sleep, et cetera, like that momentum and seriousness

builds all the way into the race. So I guess that's what I would think about if I was trying to, especially as an age group athlete, like, where is it like a point on the calendar that you can mark? This is X number of days that I think is like totally realistic for me to feel, quote, all in and pull out all the stops prior to this big race, and that will build the confidence for race day. I love that. When he said fear about doing the unknown, or not knowing if you could finish it,

I think that's where my fear of Iron Man, I think that's where I used it, like in the past, I had this fear of the distance, but as soon as I'd accepted, I was signed up and it was happening, it changed from not really being scared of it anymore because I was preparing for it properly. So the fear, when I said,

fear, which is where he got this question from. It was like my thought of Iron Man when I had no real interest in trying it. Five years ago, 10 years ago, it was much more scary until I'd accepted that I was going to do one. Do either of you have fear around a really difficult session in training? Oh, sometimes, but less now than I used to. It's not even fear. It's like almost, and it's not even dread. either because I don't hate all of it, but it is anticipation of like, you know, it's going

to hurt, can I do it, all those questions. I think you're right, Nick, it's very similar. Am I going to do the thing that I think I should be able to do or not? Good question, though. Thanks, Brian, and thanks for the philosophy as well. Next question here is from Joe. TTR is so much fun. Thanks for all you do.

Thanks, Joe. I'm training for my first 70.3 in October in Wilmington, North Carolina, and was curious how much time I should spend in Arrow during my bike training. As much as possible, just during the hard intervals, thanks Joe. Interesting about just during the hard intervals because I kind of like doing the opposite. I like doing the hard stuff sitting up and then doing the long, easy stuff in Arrow. Yeah, that's backwards. Yeah, of course.

I did a podcast with Jack Kelly and Ari, and Ari was talking about his improvements that he's on the bike and he said that his power is actually not hugely different than it's been the last five years because suddenly he's like podiuming at pro series races and his swim is not necessarily that much better than it used to be. So my philosophy was like your bike must be so much better to be bridging up and having second flaskist bike split. And he said it's because he's spending more time in his era position. So he'll do TT rides. I mean he's like the extreme of things. So take it with a grain of salt, but like two hours not even leaving his bars for a single second. And every hard ride is in his TT position. And he does a lot of this on the trainer because you can ride that long

without breaking arrow because there's no external variables. And I think it is really specific the TT's position and the muscles you're using in that position. So if it was, if it's possible, I would spend absolutely as much time as you can in the arrow position. And again, he said, that his power wasn't that much better this year, but he rode way faster. And a lot of that is just being able to hold your head, being able to use the muscles that are required when you're in Arrow, and ultimately being comfortable. So you can stay that way for a two and a half, three hour half marathon,

half Iron Man, which you're doing in whenever September. As much as possible. I think as much as possible. I've switched back to riding the new SL-9 this week, and I barely spent any time on my road bike in the lead up to Placid. and I'm feeling way more uncomfortable on the road bike to the point where I want to be back on my TT bike. Wow. So it works in that direction too. Yeah.

Because I'd always figure like road bike's always easier. No, now riding arrow is so comfy that I'm like, wow. Why would it be on the road sitting up when I could go faster and be in my bars? Wow. That's my weird. That is so not like how I used to be. That is basically like if there's three reasons that I built up, my T-T bike, that is one of the reasons, is because especially in Bend, if you're riding on the road here, my brain immediately goes to, like, I could go so much further if I was on a T-T bike

right now. Yeah, riding flat, yeah. Yeah, if you're riding the Santa Monica Mountains or even the coast where we just were, of course, a road bike's better for twisty, steep climbing. Yeah, but it's kind of fun. And like, oh, man, I could go 200 watts and almost 40K an hour and, like, get some places. Yeah. But if I could go back in time to, or if I went back in time two years ago and this, someone asked me this question, I'd say, oh, train on your road bike as much as you want. Just do a couple rides on your TT bike. And now I'm like, no, fuck you spend all your time on your TT bike as much as you can in your air bars. That is the only way to get way to get way riding your TT bike. And it will completely translate to going faster in your race.

Yep. Anecdotally for me as an age rooper, I have sadly, I think, learned the hard way that this is true because I've been getting fitter and fitter on my road bike. And then I race on the. the TT bike, I'm like, this is not who I am. It's not the same. Your muscles are different. It's not the same, sadly. Yeah. I'm just wondering how many people just decided to quit triathlon because they like their road bikes too much.

Yeah, I don't know. I think a lot of people really like their TT bikes. I think we might be the exception with the roadbikes. I always blew my mind when people that I trained with back in Boulder and stuff, they didn't even want to ride a road bike ever. They're like, TT bike all the time. I'm like, you are freaking crazy, but now I get it. I could do life without a road bike probably,

but I definitely could not do life without a gravel bike. That's my thought, too. If I'm going to ride in that position, I'm going to ride on gravel. That's, yep, that's smart. No cars. No dying. Yeah, thank you very much.

Okay, next question is from Keen. This is a fun one. Not a spelling bee, but a language question. Does Paula speak French? If not, why not? Is French in English the languages of Canada? Paula, you speak a wee bit of French. a bit, right? Yeah, I went to French immersion from kindergarten to grade 12. So what does French immersion

mean? It means you do all your subjects in French. So I was learning social studies, math, sciences, everything, every textbook was in French. No English. No English. Well, you had English as a class. Right, right, right. But you're learning, you're doing arithmetic in French. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I was very fluent in French and I, you know, we had to write all of our essays. in French. We had to read all of our novels in French. So I was extremely good at writing and reading and hearing it and understanding it, but what you don't get practice in French immersion is speaking it because, of course, the teachers encourage you to speak to them in French, but your brain just wants to talk to them in English. You're talking to your friends in English.

So you're not really practicing the dialect, but you're completely understanding of the language. But sadly, if you don't use it, you lose it so quickly. So it's been 20 years since I graduated from 12th grade. And I now have a hard time re-emercing myself. You couldn't watch a movie in French? I think I could probably watch a movie. And I, if, you know, when you're in Canada, everything's bilingual. So they'll say, they'll do the announcements on the airplane in French as well.

So I understand it. But I think it's an important thing to learn if you're growing up in Canada because a lot of the job opportunities you get later, it's an advantage if you speak both languages. any job within the government or yeah, it's just a good thing to know. But it does, I think, hamper a little bit your understanding of math, science, social studies, if you're trying to do it in a different language. I don't know if I'd put my own kids in French immersion, but I think it's a valuable skill. If you're a smart kid who can kind of do it,

otherwise you just like can't learn the subjects properly. There's a language barrier. It's a double problem. Yes, yes. But was that the question? There's a second part here. Nick is a native Italian speaker, so please put the pasta pasta enunciation to bed. So I've never heard of pasta. But Paula, you say pasta. Right? Pasta. I assume that's what they're talking about. Yes, got it. And also, what about the last word I just said there? What blank? A, B-O-U-T.

About. Yeah, you say it the American way. You don't say A-B-B-B-B-B-O-T. And how do you say pasta? Well, in Italian you say pasta. In English, I say pasta. Pasta. Not pasta. In Italian, you say it like your...

Speaking to your mom. A piazza. A baron. I do like the Italian language. Me too. I like it. It's not so useful. It's extremely not useful, actually.

It's only useful in Italy. It's useful to serenade women. Well, that hasn't been very lucky for me either, so... unfortunately. But Paula, what about the word you say bagel as well? It's so funny because all these words you're asking me, they're my favorite foods. Bagel, pasta. Yeah, that's right. Well, there you go. Those are just some little light ones for Keen. Next one is from Sarah. Hi, congrats, Paula. You've all talked about your different sources of motivation and challenges in sport. I'm wondering how you'd attribute your exposure and experience in youth sports.

if at all. As the parent of a young child, I'd love to foster a sense of passion for movement while balancing competitiveness and the challenges that come along the way. Sarah, it's kind of tough because, Paula, you started very competitively, very young. Eric, I think you were a bit more of like a normal kid

for a while there, right? Yeah, I'm still a normal kid. No, Eric did swim team. He did, but he wasn't like, picked by the national team. No, it was wildly mediocre. Swim team light. Like no morning practices.

Yeah, exactly. I was doing shit on the weekends. He was lighting stuff on fire in his driveway, you know? Fully. Skateboarding. But I think all this stuff that Eric did as a kid really contributed to his athleticism

because now he can jump on a surfboard or jump on a skateboard or jump on a one wheel and immediately begin. Totally. That's the other side of the equation. So from both of you, Paula, how do you feel like your youth sport

participation contributed to the athlete you are today in positive or negative ways. Well, when I was growing up, I was dancing. That was like my main sport. Ballet, tap, jazz. And I don't remember liking it. I like tap, but you had to do like five ballet classes a week. It was, I just remember like counting down the minutes until I got to go home. But I still did. I didn't know that. So it taught you, it really taught me how to endure. shit you don't want to be doing. And I like the performing side of it. I liked how ballet is very disciplined, very structured,

very, it is athletic in a lot of ways, so I was good at it. But I didn't necessarily enjoy it that much. Okay. Have you ever done a sporty type thing that you were like, I just enjoy this purely, you know, without it? Yeah. I remember really liking soccer,

which I wasn't that good at, but I was a good runner. soccer was fun so I don't know my parents put me and my brother and sister and everything but when when they put us in swimming swimming's a bit like dancing I didn't love every second of swimming swimming is so hard as well but there was something about the feeling of enduring something that's challenging and coming out the other side I think that was addicting to me and that my brother and sister didn't like so they didn't keep swimming but maybe that's kind of why I'm still in sport today Yeah, that's like the nature versus nurture thing.

I wonder, was there something that made you like it more, or is there just your genetic code that wanted to do that more? I think it's the genetic code. And then like reinforcements because I was successful at it at swimming anyway. Like I was getting best times. And that was exciting to me, whereas some kids are less excited by the improvement they see. It's funny, though, your sister, Adrian, she, I remember. I remember when I first met her, she was like, oh, I just kind of like ran a 10K or a 5K or something. And I remember being very impressed by her time for someone who's not like a regularly trained

athlete. Yeah. Well, it's genetic too. My parents are good runners. Yeah, yeah. Eric, what about you? So you were, how late into your life did you go before it was like, okay, I'm taking this much more seriously than my peers and I'm going down this road?

How old do you think that you were when that thought started? With triath on like 17, but just by being in swim team from the age of six onwards, you're taking something more seriously than any of your peers. But, you know, Paul and I both had the same experience where our peers just became all of the other people on swim team, all the other kids, and you just have very little time for friends outside of swim team. So it was normalized. And I was definitely one of the less serious.

kids on the swim team. So what's the exact question? The exact question is, as a parent of a young child, how do you foster a sense of passion for movement and balance competitiveness and the challenges that come along the way? It kind of reminded me of these things we've been seeing in the news about how Norway treats their child athletes and how they've been winning,

they've been doing so well at the Olympics, and people are attributing it to this, maybe more healthy way to think about competitive sport. I think a lot of it though is what I was saying about some kids are naturally competitive and passionate about it and some kids aren't and forcing it is never going to help. So you kind of have to let a kid try a bunch of things and see if they like it and maybe they won't like it. And if it's a type of kid that just doesn't want to do sport or activities, but they are amazing at the guitar or being an artist, encourage that. Like it doesn't have to be sport, right? Yeah.

Yeah. I'm observing our friend Nate, defense guy. He came on my broken top FKT thing a couple years ago. He has three kids, two boys, they're twins. And one of them is massively, hugely into mountain biking. The other one's a little bit into mountain biking, but also plays bass guitar and is going into like school of rock and all this stuff. And to see, like, he's just very encouraging or like excited about what they're

excited about and I feel like if I was going to be a dad that's what I would want to do let them try all the different things don't discourage jumping around between things but also encourage like on a monthly or a two month timeline of like well you signed up for the class to do school of rock you can't like bail on it now get to the end of it but not like this is your life yeah and if it is a kid who doesn't necessarily like sport and being competitive you can still encourage a healthy lifestyle Like we're going to go hiking. We're going to go stand up paddleboarding. Like you can still be really active, but it doesn't need to be, you're on this team

and you're going to be part of this competitive sport that you don't want to be on. And I don't necessarily think that's healthy. But we're not parents. We're just saying our experience as kids and having brothers and sisters who went down different paths. You know, we all have siblings, but I am the only one that has a sibling that truly 100% from the very beginning up until this moment rejected. any kind of physical activity at all. And it's not because my parents didn't,

I mean, my parents were exactly what Eric said, encouraging anything we wanted to do. But I don't think there was a way to get my sister to do any kind of physical work that she didn't loathe with every cell of her body. Yeah, that's interesting. So I don't know. I say this because I don't want people to feel like they failed

if their kid doesn't because I think some people just really do not have it in them. Yeah. Totally. Yeah, that's crazy because both your parents are so active. Yeah.

So it's not genetic. No. And my older brother is active. Obviously, I am. So it's crazy how far the siblings can diverge sometimes. Yeah, that's funny. Next question here is from Amy.

Hello, huge congrats to Paula on Lake Placid. Watching you finish gave me chills. Like Placid was my one and only Iron Man a number of years ago, and I loved every minute. Question for Eric. I participate in off-road triathlon racing and eight-hour mountain bike races. Racing off-road, because I'm a strong swimmer, I'm often on the bike leg ahead of men, who then need to pass me on the bike.

As well, during eight-hour looped mountain bike races, God, eight hours is long. I'm often getting passed by strong men. Is it my responsibility to know that there is someone behind me and get out of their way? I was informed that when I need to pass someone on single track, I say on your left when it is safe. What's the correct etiquette? Amy? Yeah, I don't think it's your job to look over your shoulder and be constantly aware and make sure that this person didn't have to slow down for even a fraction of a second for you. But, for example, what I do when I'm passing someone is I come up behind, I ring my bell when I'm a little ways off and then I say, hey, I'm back here.

Anytime, you know, like no stress, whatever. I do this when I'm training as well. But it's ultimately that person's job to do the extra work to get past you. And I think it's your job that if you see a wide spot in the trail that's obvious where you can soft pedal for two seconds to let them get by, I think that's the courteous thing to do. Now, like, yeah, I don't think you necessarily have to do that with someone who's like the exact same speed as you if you're in this battle with them.

But it's all a bit of, I think, what feels good to you and you know play it by air play it by feel yeah it's very situational and trail-based okay so this reminds me of something that happened recently at san diego international triathlon my friend christin also raised and right at the finish she was trying to pass this girl and the girl boxed her out like did not let her pass twice while running the last 20 meters while running there was a turn to the finish christian was going to pass on the inside, the girl closed her off and then once again closed her off

at the finish line and then Kristen missed it by like 0.2 seconds and it was for third overall versus second overall. Do you think that is okay to do? If you're in the lead and you want to take the shortest racing line, fine, that's okay. But if you're like

boxing someone out by running at an angle down the finish shoot, absolutely not okay. It's the same as cycling. Just run straight. That's just, This girl did take the shortest line, but I am certain she purposely pinched off that corner to keep Kristen from passing her. I mean, I did not love it. But yeah, but I do think it's just the way it is there.

On a corner, I think that's a little bit the way it is. And I, you know, it might be frustrating for who's behind, but I think it's fair. This is a sprint finish? Sprint finish, yeah. Especially since Kristen could have gone the wide way around. And in a mountain bike race when you're on single track, you can. can't really do that. You're sharing that single track. So it does feel like you

do have to let the person going behind you you pass. This was running though, right, Nick? This was running, yeah. Yeah, I think if you're doing a short triathlon with a technical finish line, it's always worth reconning it. So you know what line to take. No matter how competitive you are. Because we've watched so many WTS races

where the finish line has a hair pin or a weird squiggle. And it's usually the athlete who takes the smartest line who wins. Think about what the alternative is here for this woman who is in front of Kristen. She sees Kristen coming and then make sure she runs extra distance

to give Kristen the opportunity to run the shortest. No, that doesn't feel right either. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right. No, that's fair. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard out there. Yeah. Robbins racing. Robbins racing. As they say. And if you haven't seen this, go back and watch the finish of

Eric winning Alcatraz in what year? No, they deleted all footage. Oh, it doesn't exist. There might be like a couple clips somewhere, but... I've seen photos. I've seen photos. Okay. Next question here is from Paul, from Virginia.

Huge congrats to Paula on her Ironman Wind, loved watching you crush your debut. Question for all of you. Do you play any Jedi mind tricks on yourself to get through a hard or long workout? What I mean, I just came from a long run and kept telling myself, 17 miles

isn't a long distance to keep my pace and was listing ultramarathoners in my head who run. for days straight. This is obviously silly and untrue. 17 miles is very far, but it makes hard workouts seem less daunting when I remind myself of the far crazier things people accomplish. Do you all ever trick yourself in a similar way to not be intimidated by something difficult? Paul from Virginia. Of course we do. What human on this earth does not do that? That's all I was doing for the whole race. I was thinking about Heather.

Oh my God. Yeah. So yeah, in Coca-Dona. You have 10 miles to go. Okay, think about when she had 110 miles to go and she was feeling bad. Oh my gosh. I do think about Heather a lot when I'm training. Like five miles for her is nothing. You can do that.

Right? God. It's brutal. I don't think I've done anything long enough to have like allow my mind to drift that far. Eric's never done an Iron Man guys. You start rubbing it in.

I don't think it has to be something so long. be something just difficult, like a, yeah, even like a 20 minutes threshold, which maybe sounds silly, but that can be really tough. Well, what I'm saying is that I think the level of intensity that I would have to be at to allow my mind to drift off of the task that I'm doing, to like deliberately distract myself from what's right in front of me would have to be like 100K. I think my brain works much better with like focusing in on, okay, what is the form running cues, what is this like, lap your watch, try to do this next K well, focus on... Staying in the moment.

For me, it's more like doubling down on the moment, not doubling down on focusing on the discomfort, but like the processes that I have to do. That's funny, Eric, because you were miscounting 50s today. Well, when I swim, I just think about... You were clearly thinking about something else. It's different when I swim. He literally would kept flipping and doing 100 instead of a 50.

That's pretty epic, Eric. That's a pretty epic, like, I understand 200, 250 or, you know, 400 or 350. I mean, if I'm totally honest, I was thinking about the long game episode and how I'm going to like get from this point to this next point. And then I would just realize, oh my God, I'm in the middle of a 75 and we're doing 50s. Yeah, Eric, when he swims, definitely thinks about literally everything about swimming, I think. But I understand what you're saying about your running and long distance stuff. I don't think that's a better way to be. Yeah.

For sure. I just can't do that. Like hard efforts. Like then I have to be present. But if it's like, yeah, five by 300, then I'm just like, cool. What's on the, what's playing? in my brain today. You know what the extreme version of this had happened to me a couple times

like a month and a half ago when I had a lot of stuff in my personal life going on is flipping at the pool and thinking you're on the opposite end of the pool. That's happened to me. That's extreme. It's like wow, I'm really losing it. It happens to me pretty often when I'm swimming in a brand new pool. Because I think you're like subconsciously know where the light is

in a pool that you're maybe. I don't know. For me, I know where the sun is. It's not that I'm thinking about it, but it's always on One side or the other. Well, as you also know, where you put your shit on one side of the pool. Well, you would think. And yet I still got confused a couple of times. Yeah, that happens to me too. That's a weird feeling. It's like the twisties. Yeah. But Eric, I envy this ability you have because like, even when I'm in a 70.3, I am trying to trick myself into moving forward. I'm like, okay, I only have, I'm almost at halfway through the bike portion or I'm almost at halfway through the total. race time or like there's a little downhill after this, these little moments. Otherwise, I zoom out too far through the whole race and I feel scared and overwhelmed about the effort that is still to come. Oh, for sure. Yeah. No, I'm sure that there are things that you think about while

you're swimming that someone has told you like, breathe sooner or like get your elbow up. That's the kind of stuff that I like to check in on or just like, is my sensation of fluidity in the water appropriate? Am I touching feet? Where's the buoy? Okay, back to like, am I catching water? Am I just flailing and then get on the bike and it's like, okay, I know, especially with the hip issues that I've had, it has taken maximum focus for me to like feel like I'm getting my glutes engaged and et cetera. So maybe I just have an advantage of, that's like an advantage in a weird way for staying present. But I've always been like that, even when I was a kid, just like focusing on my technique and feeling rather than like how much does this hurt. Do you feel like you have, if you were

to self-diagnosed, feel like you have ADHD or no? 100%. Oh, interesting. Because I was going to say, I think I do, and I think that contributes to this negative side, and maybe you are able to stay more focused on the task, and that helps you. I think, I mean, I don't know enough about ADHD, but like the way my brain works is it's, like, once I lock on to something, I just, I cannot, I cannot stop. Yeah, hyperfixation.

It's also very hard for me to start something, but yeah, I get hyper fixated on a thing. So I think that's like a little bit of a superpower and also a detriment because I'll just like forget to eat lunch and I'll forget all this other stuff that I have to do. But I'm locked in on like whatever building a bench for the wet room. Right. Literally nothing else can exist. Okay. This one is our video segment. So we're going to read the question live in the podcast.

Clothes on, everybody. Yeah, close on. What is that sweater? Eric. Oh, it's a blank, right? Is that a foreign writer blank? This is a foreign rider. This is a foreign rider analog through neck.

So nice. That's so nice. On pro try news, they were talking about, I forget what the context was, but one of the Kyle's punishment for doing something or being wrong about something was to do the pod with no shirt. And they were all like, oh, yeah, that's such a good punishment. I'm like, that is what we do every day. Let's redo every episode. We're all podcasting with no clothes on every day because it's so hot. This is why we don't have a video show. Okay, so this is the question. We're going to read it aloud on the podcast, but only podcast supporters are going to get. the answer and it's going to be in video form with us all on camera. Hey, TTL, although words can't describe how inspirational Paula's Ironman was. Words can't describe. I just wanted to quick. We need to stop saying those first sentences. I think that, I think for this week we have to read them all. Okay, fine. And we can abridge them later. How about in 2027 we stop? Okay, let's go the rest of the year. Great. Great.

Well, that was two different extremes. I just want to to quickly mention this, it's the most excited I've been about life in a while. Wow, Paula. You see? Wow. Look at my race. Yes. Look at what you're doing to people. Oh my gosh. This is what I mean. It's like that type of thing. Who would have ever expected that that would be the outcome? I don't know. I even felt that a little bit. I'm not saying it was the most excited I've been about life in a while, but it did, it did touch something inside of me as well. Just seeing you perform like that. Yeah, maybe it's a parasocial thing, but you're still a true icon, and I get chills thinking about your performance. Sorry, I had to finish that. My question is about the tech devices you guys use during races. I think you've mentioned before you don't swim with a watch, but do you put it on for the bike or maybe just for the run? Doesn't it take time for it to connect to a GPS signal?

Also, do you measure your heart rate during the race with any other strap device? Or are those measurements not relevant to your performance? I would be happy if you could share the settings you have for your different activities during the race. And how do you switch between them during transition? Thanks. Joanna. Okay. We'll be right back if you're a podcast listener.

And here we are if you're a podcast supporter. I'm just going to say that was incredible. If you didn't get to witness that, I feel sorry for you. Many tangents as well. That was long. I think that was like almost 10 minutes of. of that question. Okay, so this is from Radu.

Radu says, trying to set the record for shortest question ask. Three words. Challenge Roth, 2027. Oh, the shortest, but biggest question. Yes.

Well, first of all, it's sold out in like, I think 16 seconds, something like that for next year. But we are curious. Are we not? Definitely curious.

Who isn't Roth curious? For sure. It's an interesting idea. We, quote, would love to race it. We would love to race it. I watched a video that I think Ruby did of Kat surrounding her prep for Roth. It was Ruby.

And it was a really interesting perspective she had on most of the time when we're racing, Iron Man races, we're thinking about the points for the pro series or like getting prep for a world championship. And then when you are at a world championship, you're thinking about being a world champion and championship level racing.

Whereas she was approaching Roth as this opportunity to see what her potential was and how fast she could go on this course. It was less about winning. It was more about pushing her own internal boundaries, which does really interest me about Roth because it's such a big event that everyone knows about, Everyone pays attention to.

Everyone says it's the best vibe atmosphere of any race they've been to. But it doesn't matter as much if you come first or second or third. It's a cool opportunity to try to go as fast as you can over that distance. And we've seen like Iron Man Records broken there. I think it's possible to break eight hours there. Is that what women are trying to do? Iron distance, yeah. So it's a cool thought that way.

And I like how the run is partly on gravel. I like how the temperatures are boiling hot usually. So I'm interested in doing it. It feels similar to what I loved about Escape from Alcatraz where it feels like it's very much its own thing so it's like kind of incomparable to other things

and it's got that energy and a special thing and even though it is an iron distance and you theoretically could compare it to some of your other efforts, I feel like I wouldn't be. Like I would just be trying to nail that course. That's the gift it gives you. That's right. It's like a little bit removed.

Yeah, it draws a really good field, so you're always going to have fast people to race against. And I think that challenge takes, and Felix specifically take really good care of the pros. They want pros to feel like they're part of their family. And this is what I've heard. I haven't been there to experience it. But Belinda as well, who's in charge of the pro athletes,

always says that it's the best race on Earth. Yeah. I'll be fine. I'll do it. I'm also thinking like I should just go. I think you two should do it and I'll go in like the year support crew. I don't think that's what the people want, but it's intriguing. Paula, what if I run by you and I go, I'm so fucking over this.

Then I'll hide in a bush. Splits, give me splits. Give me splits. Give me splits. How far back to Marta? Yeah, we're definitely curious. Definitely, definitely Roth curious. What we should do is we should just see we can get you into the pro field so it can be like that Lewis CK skit about or whoever did that.

Like we need a regular dude doing a regular dude doing a regular dude. A regular dude. Of what these pros are doing. I think each time I should start like just five minutes ahead of each of each sport so that you can see them coming past me. Right. Because that's really what. Yeah. That's true.

I'll ride the wake. Okay. Last question here is from Zach. and it's for the two of you. Hello team, mainly a question for Eric and Paula. How much has the other person's recent athletic endeavor influence the type of training and racing you want to do? For example, Eric doing ultra racing.

Do you think that influenced you, Paula, to move up to the Iron Man distance? Or Eric, does Paula moving up to the Iron Man distance make you want to try something new you haven't done before like Norseman or Padigan Man? Love the pod, and not to exclude Nick, I'm looking forward to being an Iron Man, Wisconsin. Finisher this September.

Nice, Zach. P.S. Paula, congrats on the Iron Man, and that's the last one for this episode. So, what do you guys think? I think I, I've tried everything that I'm interested in, short of Padigan Man, Norseman. He's wanted to do that forever, regardless of my racing. Yeah, that's fully, fully me. Nothing that Paula has done has, could possibly enhance my desire to try new things more than it already is there. Well, Eric wants to do, I think you want to do 100K,000 because you've done 50Ks, but I think a 100K might actually suit you better.

I really want to do the CCC 100K at UTMB. Yeah, but that's aside from anything I've done. I think a little bit, not just Eric, but also my friends, Heather and people that are training for longer stuff, it has changed my perspective, like an earlier question, of what long is and what's possible in training. It didn't necessarily shape my desire to do an Iron Man, but when Eric was training for his 50K doing 30K runs again and again and again, my 12K runs felt pretty. piddly compared to his big runs.

So it kind of just made me want to, it made me realize that, oh, this is totally possible. And then I realized that it is possible if you're in that mindset of training for something longer. But the Iron Man had not a lot to do with Eric's racing in particular, but just my personal need to do one before I retire. Yeah. And also Nick doing an Iron Man.

I'm like, you cannot be the only Iron Man. podcast. You know what? I loved it while it lasted. I holding that over the two of you. No, it's really not that. And even like when I read this like moving up to the iron distance,

I, it's not moving up. It's a different thing. It's a different thing. That's what it feels like. It's a different thing. You're moving up in distance. You're not moving up in difficulty or impressiveness or anything like that.

Right. Right. Like what's harder, racing a 5K or? or a hundred. Well, I think what we're going for here is like completing an Iron Man versus getting another five minutes out of your 70.3. You know, like, if you're just, the goal is to cross the finish line, of course, an Iron

Man is harder than a 70.3. But if you're on that, like, I don't know, should I get every last second out of my body over this or try something a little bit longer and different? Like Paula has really enjoyed doing that different intensity level. And it's a, like you said. When you said that, Nick, I instantly thought. Oh, a 5K is way harder than 100K. Well, that's, I mean, to me, I would rather race a half marathon for time than a 5K for time.

Same. I would definitely rather train for 100K than for a 5K. Yeah, the 5K is brutal. Those VO2 max sessions are like, you're so uncomfortable. Dying. Anytime you're approaching max heart rate in training or racing, it's, I think, harder than doing aerobic level all day. I had such a bad session on the bike yesterday doing nine times two minutes on the bike

I hated every single second of those intervals Yeah but they are important Even if you're training for an Iron Man Doing some of the high intensity is important And I don't want to I used to tell myself that I love that stuff Because I kind of did Going super hard

You're done in 18 minutes Yeah But it's extremely painful Yeah I didn't, yeah, it is. And it's making me rethink. Because I also thought, I used to not do the long stuff and just do the intensity and then do whatever I wanted. Exactly.

And now it's, I feel like it flips. I think we're just getting older. Say la vie. Oh, someone wanted you to pronounce something in French. Oh, no, that's not what it was. It's someone had asked a question and then we could be done. It's not a question, but it was about do we think that some, like we could, the race specific TTL shirts, like the ones we did for Plasie. in Oceanside, if one for Nice could be like

La Vie de Triathlon or something like that instead of that triathlon life, if you did it specific to that language. It's kind of a fun idea. Whoa. I liked the idea too. So yeah, we are planning on doing Nice shirts exactly like we did for Oceanside and Lake Placid.

They're going to be, I mean, I think these could potentially be the most stylish because of how cool the French Riviera is. Yes, totally. And we will have a conversation with the artist we could also do a hat that says that in French on it, you know? Right. The thing is it doesn't translate to that triathlon life. It's like the whole order of the words becomes different.

Right. Find the question neck, he translated it correctly. Yes, he did, he did. It was... Here I am French immersion 12 years. I don't even know how to translate. Like whatever version of a life of triathlon or, you know, that sounds and looks the best in French, it doesn't have to be a literal, yeah, translation.

Set the Triathlon This life of triathlon That's kind of what it translates to Yes Mm It's cool It's cool

Yes We're thinking The wheels are turning That was from Dave All we do is think up Like little phrases And fun stuff like this And put them on hats

For our entertainment And we could do like a little For some reason It reminds me of like Someone's sitting on a On the veranda of a French bakery smoking a pipe. Yeah.

For some reason that it's not a trap on life. With an old bicycle. But you're never going to find a triathlon shirt with someone smoking on it. So, you know, we are all about first. That would be a real new one. Okay. That's it.

That's our pod. Also a long one this week. We're trying to pack in as much value as possible. Well, if you cut out the 10 minutes of talking about our Wahu computers. You're right. You're right. It's a normal length. You're right.

You're right. It's true. It's true. That's true. All right. We'll see you all next week. Thanks, everyone. Bye.