That Triathlon Life Podcast - Incorporating speed work for 70.3 triathlons, tubular tires, and more!

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

For our holiday special episode this week, we kicked things off with some "Good Gift, Bad Gift" to keep it festive, and then moved on to your triathlon questions. This week, we discussed:Our one word for 2024 and 2025Riding hills on a bikeHomestaysSports watch accuracy during pool swimmingIncorporating speed work into 70.3 trainingBuying a used tubular disc wheelGoogly eyes in BendA big thank you to our podcast supporters who help keep the podcast alive. You can become a podcast supporter as well as submit questions for the podcast at ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcastEric's multitool suggestions: T-RATCHET + TI-TORQUE KITNick's home tool kit: HX-ONE HOME ESSENTIAL KITPaula's TTL garage sale

What's up, everybody? Welcome to That Triathlon Life podcast. I'm Eric Lagerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. Welcome to our final That Triathlon Life podcast of 2024. We've had an incredible year. Paul and I are both professional triathletes.

I guess I should get that out of the way before we get on to the rest of the show. Nick is not a professional triathlet. He's a professional musician. Great friend of ours, amateur triathlet, upper middle pack, upper middle class. Just raised 70.3 World Championships in Taupo. As did Paula. I did not. But this is our final episode of the year, and we're headed into Christmas.

So it's exciting. Well, technically, if you're listening to this, Christmas was yesterday. Wow. Yeah, that's true. We're recording this before Christmas. So this is a little bit of a Christmas, but also a New Year's episode. Yep. It is indeed.

It's a little sandwich, a little Christmas New Year's sandwich. It's been an incredible year here at TTL. It's been a wild year. We've been all over the place, emotionally, geographically. and I kind of just wanted to start off the whole thing by saying thank you. To everybody who has listened to the podcast, who has watched our YouTube channel, who has done a heart on Instagram, giving us a comment at any point in time,

bought merchandise, supported the development team. It's really, when you kind of look back on it, it is overwhelming how cool this community that we are a part of and are, you know, sort of at the head of it feels, but it's, it's, yeah, I just, I'm really, it's really exciting and I feel really proud to be involved in it in any way. So thank you, everybody. Thank you also the two of you for heading this. I mean, some things that happened this year, you guys had second year of the Devo team. You had the app, which launched. Eric, you did your first trail race, Paula, you went to World's TT Worlds and raced all over the world.

We had a wedding. Yeah. We got married. Oh my gosh. I remember all the things. A lot has happened, yeah. But we're, I would say overall it was a successful year. We're excited for next year. This TTR thing just keeps like growing and getting bigger and more opportunities and more exciting. So we're definitely not slowing down.

We're slowing down a little bit for Christmas and having COVID during Christmas. Yeah, well, we're not even slowing down if we're like completely honest. We just finished up a couple hours ago, our final development team interview for the 2025 team. And we're kind of like got all this, the wheels are in motion for announcing the new team on January 1st. So I think we will actually, in fact, take Christmas and maybe New Year's Christmas Eve off and not answer our phones or anything. But this is sort of the nature of being a professional athlete slash entrepreneur slash, you know, there's like 14 slash. So never quite fully off. Are you guys taking an intentional off season at all?

Yeah, well, we conveniently we got COVID the day after we got back from New Zealand. So we were forced to kind of take a week off because we felt so terrible. But we've gotten back moving a little bit with some running and a little bit of Zwift riding, mostly because we feel best when we're a little bit active. You know, it's harder to sleep and all that when you're not moving at all. But we both still tested positive today for, COVID. So it's completely derailed our Christmas plans. We can't really go visit Eric's family because there's some older people in his family that they got COVID to be really bad. So we are going to be

spending our first Christmas all alone, Eric and I, which is kind of sad, but also in a way sounds kind of nice after such a hectic year just to kind of do a staycation Christmas holiday. And none of our friends want to hang out with us either because we have COVID. So we're like actually We're actually alone. Yeah. Which is okay. We went to the store today and got like a bunch of stuff to make dinner for tomorrow and all that. So it'll be fine.

We just got COVID four years after most people. Everyone else. Yeah. This is actually our first confirmed COVID. I think it's the second time as, maybe it's your second time as well, Paula, but like the second time I've been sick, period, since the beginning of the COVID situation. It's so ridiculous because it's basically just like a cold now. You know, we felt terrible first.

a couple days. For us, yeah. But I guess it could have bigger consequences for someone who's more immunocompromised or whatever. I think also just from time to time, it can get you, you yourself more or less. And Paula, you just had the COVID vaccine, not like, kind of like the perfect amount of time ago. Yeah, for my green card, I had to get the COVID vaccine. And that didn't seem to help. I wonder though. I wonder if it's the weirdest thing. The weirdest thing about the COVID actually, not to turn this into COVID talk, but I've had this awful chemically metallic taste in my mouth when I eat anything. It's so disgusting.

Like the first day we were cooking like tofu or something and I was like, man, this tastes like plastic. This is so gross. I cannot eat this. But then the next day my coffee tasted like that. My cookie tasted like that. Oh no. I was like, oh, this is not the tofu. That's when it gets real serious.

It's when the cookie tastes. And that's kind of dying down now, but I just assume it's like something to do with my sinuses and the COVID, but that was the worst part of it. It was just this horrible taste. Have you guys noticed it affect your exercise in any way that's any different than a normal sickness? When I run, it's like I can feel my chest. Yeah, I feel a bit like I have like VIX, vapor rub on my chest or something.

It's like a little bit more of a light feeling. But also, like I've done two runs now like this morning and yesterday. and I did like 530 per column. Yeah, we're going so slow. Trotting just to be out in nature. Yeah. And what is nature like right now? Is there snow on the ground?

No, it's actually fantastic here. It's kind of warm. There's snow on the mountain, but not in town. It's the perfect scenario. So we can still get on the trails a little bit. Nice. I did my first run today since Topo, Topa, 70.3 on pavement today. And there is snow on the ground here.

and I was kind of like dodging ice on the roads. Because you're in New York. Not in New York. Not Santa Monica. Just to be clear, did not snow in Santa Monica. No, there's been fires in Malibu. No, we have the opposite problems. Oh, wow, that's scary.

Okay, well, last year, we had a fun little segment that I, that is, it's a seasonal, a holiday seasonal segment. So I brought it back for this year. And for those who are keen listeners, you might remember it. It's called Good Gift, Bad Gift. Good. Bad Gift with TTL. Oh, it's got a jing.

Oh my gosh. It has a jangle. It has a jingo. Of course it has a jingo. Is this TTL podcast? It happens once a year and you got a jingle for it, dude. That's next level. What's the game?

What's the premise of this game? It's very complicated. I present a gift and you say whether it's a good gift or a bad gift for a triathlete. All right. Flynn could play this. Flynn could play this easily. It'd probably give us equally. accurate answers. Okay, so I have, for the first one, there's a, there's a part A and a part B.

So part A is fancy cycling socks. I think that's a great gift. I think it's, I think it might be the best gift because it's like, yeah, I don't want to spend money on fancy socks, but if I had them, I'd love them. Exactly. And what about, okay, this one's going to be divisive. And I know that the two of you know where I stand on this, and everyone that I know hates them. But running toe socks, what do we think about that? Bad gift. I'm going to say a bad gift just because they're so polarizing.

They could not get used at all but if you're willing to take that gamble and potentially change someone's life. Right. Here's why I think it's a great gift is because few people have the hubris to purchase it for themselves because they're so alarmingly ugly. But when you, if someone gives them to you're like,

well, I'm not going to throw them away. That would be rude. And then you have to use them and I just love them. I love them. They stop me from getting blisters between my toes on long runs. Anyway, that's my soapbox. That's my toe socks soapbox. Can't wait for our toes socks, maybe more of like a stocking stuffer. What do you think about that? Not a gift. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stockings and the stocking? That's, ooh, they're nice. A little stocking inception. Okay, next one here. This is maybe a little boring, but I feel like it's a great one. Sunscreen, like a big,

fancy bottle of sunscreen. Like you guys had this. Good gift. No, bad gift. You're not going to be able to use it for four months. Oh, that's true. That's true. Because by the way, as aside to this question, there's this new sunscreen brand that Kelly Slater started called Freaks of Nature. And they've reached out a couple times on Instagram, like, even do you, Nick? Yeah. About our sponsorship or whatever it is. But what caught my attention is this lady from Freaks of Nature emailed the TTL account and was like, can we please send you a Christmas gift? It's got like a Bluetooth speaker, a Yeti cooler, and I'm like, yes.

This is ridiculous. And I'm like, this is fake, but here's my address. Is there also sunscreen in this gift? Yeah. Wait, was there? There was. There was a little three different sunscreens right. We come home from New Zealand and there's this huge box from Freaks of Nature. And it's no joke, a Yeti cooler filled to the brim with stuff. A Bluetooth speaker.

Stuff. Three tubes of sunscreen. A massage gun. A sweet long sleeve t-shirt. A super nice long seat t-shirt. A bunch of like nutrition products. It's insane. And like we do not deserve this.

Like what did we do? We didn't do anything for them. I guess we're calling them out on the podcast right now. Yeah. That's exactly. It worked perfectly like gangbusters. It worked. You just gave them 60 seconds.

So because it, because it's winter, we haven't actually tried the sunscreen. But the branding is so dialed. The colors are cool. I mailed her back and I was like, do you want to be our title sponsor? That's a TTR podcast.

Just send one Yeti cooler a month and you'll be good. This has got to be our new TTL strategy. Just send famous people an outrageous gift basket. We're not even famous, but oh my gosh. And the cool thing was like, we're not. None of the stuff was branded with their logo. It's not like a Yeti Cooler branded with Frinks of Nature.

It was just like a Yeti Cool. It was the color. It was on brand color wise, but there wasn't, yeah. We were just being using this cooler out in the world and nobody's nowhere. We got it. That's really nice. Really nice, yeah. But I'm trying to be better in the new year.

Speaking of things I want to be in the new year. And I think next week, maybe we should do a few personal goals for ourselves. I think that could be fun. And have everyone on the podcast do it for themselves as well if they already don't. But I want to be much more vigilant about protecting myself against the UV rays in 2025. Yeah, did that come to light when you were in New Zealand getting roasted? Yeah, that was, we didn't really talk about that. But like, I mostly, I got burnt for sure.

But the worst of it was my. lip, my bottom lip got so bad. Same with mine. Never has been that bad before. I was in like pain for days like crack. We needed a freak's of nature in New Zealand. After day one, I was putting sunscreen like sunscreen lips balm on my lip every like 10 minutes and still. Yeah. We didn't talk about this, but during the race, um, the days, both the women's and men's race, the UV index got up to 12. The highest possible. The highest possible. And I've always seen that on the UV ranges. But It's always like if it's really bad, it's 10 or maybe 11, wherever I've been, I've never seen it get to 12.

It's because you guys told me this. The ozone layer is thinner down there. Somebody told us that and you're kind of like, right, okay. But then you freaking step out in the sun. We felt it. Yeah, this is a global problem. How are we not talking about this? I got on the airplane to come home and my whole forehead was like peeling.

Yeah. Because it had been burned all week. So brutal. That's a good goal, Nick. My goal for next year is to shout out, way more people who send us awesome gift baskets on the podcast. That's very nice. Yeah, me too.

Yeah, by the way, Freaks of Nature, I also love Yeti Coolers. Elon, you know, a Starlink or a Tesla. Wouldn't say no. I think we're canceling, Elon, dude. I don't know. I feel like I'm allowed because I steal from him whenever I charge. I get free supercharving. Is Elon canceled?

I don't pay enough attention. Okay, next question. Okay, next one here is a blingy-multie tool. Good gift. Amazing gift. I've already advised a couple of people who asked what the multi-tool that we shouted out

a month ago is. Yeah. And I was actually put in my own comments here. The one that I really like, which is like, it's not a multi-tool. It's like an at-home fancy tool set in a wooden box. It's from Silka.

It's called the HX-1 Home Essential Kit. And it's $125, which I do think is a pretty good sweet spot in terms of price point. And I like the torquey thing. Yes. I'll put them both in the description. Silka.

Send us a gift basket. It kind of did. Silka, yeah. I don't want to tell you what Silka does for us. Our sick chain waxing system is definitely a silka gift basket. Okay. I guess it's not as exciting to me as the Bluetooth speaker and stuff. I love the silka.

Can we get a silka Bluetooth speaker for Paula, please? Yeah. Okay. Next one here. I thought of this because I used it for the first time, which was also sent to me. It's an Epsom salt. That's classic. I personally haven't ever used one.

Wait, Epsom salt to put in a bath? Like you get up one of those bombs. Yes. Yep. Yep. You put in a bath for like recovery for an athlete. Bad gift. It's like pamper yourself. They're like three dollars.

Okay. First of all, we don't, we have all kinds of audience listeners in this podcast. That's true. Actually, I did the dangerous thing of going on slow twitch and there's a thread about the vlog, our vlog. Oh no. And people are calling me entitled and like snobby. People are so rough towards me.

Maybe because I said $3. bath bomb's a bad gift. Well, they haven't heard that yet, so I'm just curious what in the vlog. There's a new thread about that, yeah. God, it's like the last thing I want to come across as is entitled and spoiled. Yeah, here we are. You got to say thankful more often. I wanted to say something last week on the pot, and I forgot to say, as I think that for me,

the highlight of the entire Topaw experience, the race was great, traveling New Zealand was great, but realizing how far reaching the TTR audience is, how many corners of the earth people came up to us and said hi, like from Israel, from Egypt, from South America, from Australia, from Europe, from Asia. It's just like, oh my gosh, that I felt like this is such a special thing. And we live in this time where this is even possible. It's so cool that we're just talking three friends into a microphone

and people all over the world are engaged in it somehow. Yeah. I just thought, that was the coolest part of the whole thing. 100%. I agree, Nick. Okay, next one here. I was thinking, would it be cool to have like some kind of gift card for a bike tune from a local bike shop? Like bring it in and they look over everything and check things and like maybe get to do a break bleed or something like that.

That's a good idea. I like that. Yeah. That's the thing people definitely tend to put off and not actually do. a little more expensive than you want it to be, but you have to do it. Also, if you're a local bike shop, you should sell that as like a little thing. Like just a gift card that says like bike tune up, like premium bike tune. Yeah.

Not like $100, but the actual thing. Yeah. That's a good idea. And then the last one here, and this one is the opposite end of Epsom salts is compression boots. What do we think of that for a gift? That's if you're rolling in dough. Is that a good gift?

That is definitely the opposite end of the spectrum. that is way beyond any gift dollars that I've ever... No, but sometimes people want to get a nice thing for, like, their husband or their... Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. More that. Oh, okay. More that. The Mac, like, keystone gift. Like the gift from Santa.

The gift. The gift from Santa. The gift from Santa's so good. Like when I was growing up, the gift from Santa was like the epic gift. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. Which stinks because, like, that's the one that, sorry if there's any kids listening, not to spoil the fun here, but that's the one that the parents bought and spent the most money.

And they're like, freaking Santa gets credit for this. Like, does it really matter? Like, you're right. You're right. You're right. You just see your kids so happy. I'm such a Grinch. You're right.

You're right. Don't need to get credit for it. It's funny. In Italy, there is like, sometimes it's Santa brings gifts. And sometimes it's baby Jesus who brings gifts. Really? Like, Italy is not, contrary to popular belief, Italy is actually not a religious country, really.

Not in the way that the U.S. can be. but that's just this thing that since you're young, it's baby Jesus or Santa, and you usually kind of believe in one or the other, but there is definitely a lot of people who believe in both. And I was one of those people. And so the night before, baby Jesus would bring gifts for us, and then the morning would wake up. You know, it doesn't make sense, but...

Santa comes down the chimney, he rides on reindeer. Like, it's got a whole backstory that you can fact check. I know. Baby Jesus, how is he levitating? I don't... Well, he's got skills, obviously. obviously. He's just home to present. And I also think it's like, when you get a present, you don't question the source of the present.

You're like a freaking awesome. You just fill it a game board in advance. And now I have it. Yes, for sure. How do you say baby Jesus in Italian? Jezoubambino. Oh, that's cute. And Santa Claus is babbon natale.

That's super cute too. Your language is just so much better. Well, those are key ingredients in a happy childhood in Italy is Jezubumbino and Babbonnezzal. So that's it. Yeah. compression boots, that would be a big, really nice, real a nice gift. Good gift, but I mean, do we really use ours that much, Eric? No. I don't know. That's kind of a philosophical thing. It's like using them all the time or you're not using them.

Yeah. I have friends who use them all the time. Oh, you do? Okay. Yeah. Keith and's going to use them all the time. But like, I think multiple times a week. But I don't know, I don't think I would, even if I have it. We go through phases, I should say. I would prefer to have a Thera gun. If anything, they force you to sit. Oh, right, right, right.

They force you to not move for an hour. Yeah, if it's like I got a foam roll or, you know, I have 30 minutes of that doing something like that. I'm going to foam roll. Yeah, that's interesting. The only time I ever feel the urge to use the boots is after we travel and my legs are puffy. And you guys never do the compression like stuff on you when you're traveling. That one will fly business, baby. Not for a long time.

Very nice. I'm entitled. Yeah, can we? Sorry. haters on slow twitch. I traveled, traveling back from New Zealand, still so many, so many triathletes on my flight. And that was like five days after the race. And so many of them had compression like sleeves on their calves.

Yeah, it does help. It does help. No, I think I generally do. It does help, but that's not a good gift. It's not a good gift. No. And that wasn't even on my list. But that's the end of the list.

That's the end of Good Gift, Bad Gift, TTR. I think that's a fun segment. If we remember to do it next year, we're doing it next year too. Let's move on to questions here. And these questions, sadly, are not really a Christmas-themed, holiday-themed. But as Eric said, we want to thank everyone that listens to the podcast and likes everything, especially thankful for podcast supporters. It's the only way this podcast makes any money.

You can support the podcast and submit questions for the podcast at thattriathlonlife.com slash podcast. And this week, we're going to pick a random winner, as we always do, to get a special, now that Paul is back, she has to work on the backlog of this. I think we're still shipping orca products. Yeah, we are still shipping orca stuff. So you'll get an extra special thing. This is fancy. This is fancy prising. Don't everybody get all used to this. This is special. Yeah. And this week, the random winner is Taylor Swift. Thank you for listening to the podcast. No, it's not. Yeah, correct. It's not. Sorry. Richard Saunders is the winner this week. But Taylor, if you're listening, you know, just keep supporting the podcast and maybe one week if you're lucky enough, you'll be a winner too. So Richard Saunders, we have an address for you, but if you can just confirm it with us and then we'll send you that cool piece of Orca Gear. Have you guys heard of the word saunders? By the way, this is kind of a cool off thing. Didn't Chelsea Sedaro just tell Kate, Courtney, this word? And she posts us.

it on her Instagram story. I feel like Paula. I missed that. I feel like Paula just showed me that the other day. I don't think I did. It's kind of a made up word. I mean, all words are made up. But this one's like, like, I feel like an influencer made it up like 10 years ago.

The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it. Well, I have experienced this somewhat often. The thing is that's a complex thing that is then conveniently placed into one word. That's why I kind of feel like, like, where do you put that in a sentence? I'm feeling saunderer. You know, it's this kind of strange, but I don't like the concept.

Like I'm pondering. Essentially, while you are the main character in your own life, you're a background character in everyone else's life. Yes, yes. So you think that everything that happens is so important in the end of the world and all this, but. So does every other person out there. There's a cool, equal and opposite side of this. It's like a mental state of being or practice called onism, where you have this feeling of missing out that you're not living every single potential life,

that you're not experiencing every single thing. You can't be, you know, I think I feel this way about, for example, training for triathlon, as much as I love it, spending 15 to 20 hours a week training is on this single thing instead of maybe being able to travel more or experience different kind of things. Like I sometimes get this feeling of like, am I living my life right?

I'm sure a lot of listeners have experienced this too. Oh, I feel that all the time. But that's like the opposite of Sonder is Onism. Andrew Garfield just talked about it on a podcast as well. Interesting. Anyway, back to square one here. Richard Saunders, thank you so much for being a podcast supporter. We really appreciate it.

Last one of 2024. And we're going to jump right in the questions here. And this one, Paula said, asterisk must answer in her notes for this. Because it's a good friend of ours that sent this in. I also just think it's a great little question. And actually, Julia has her own podcast too. And she also has a wire hair pointer. She looked after Flynn while we were on one mega trip in 2023.

So Flynn hung out with her dog Bodie for several weeks. I saw that in the question. I wasn't going to read that part, but yes, Bodie. You don't have to read that part. Bodie's very sweet. Okay, here it is from Julia. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick and Flynn, of course. My end of year question for all of you individually is, if you could describe your 2024 in one word, what word would it be? And if you could pick one word for how you would want to feel in 2025, what would that be? With love and gratitude, Julia. This is a deep question. Yeah, and it's hard. One word is complicated. And there's a lot of words in the English language, but emotions are very complex as well. So, who wants to go first? I'll go first. Yeah, go ahead, Eric.

I want to hear what you have to say. Let's do our, let's do our 2024 words individually first, and then we'll do our 2025 words. Okay. Divergent. Oh, Eric. Eric's so good. And you didn't even have much time to come up with that. Yeah, I mean, I could read that in many different ways from you, but do you want to expand

on that or do you want to just leave it at that? Yeah, I feel like I just started opening myself up to some of the, things that I have thought about whilst experiencing onism and thinking should I try to flex my creative muscles a little bit more and start working on a film project that I've dreamed about making a full like 45 minute long ski film type thing endurance focused for probably six, seven, eight years now. And I started working on that with you, Nick. And I experienced a trail run. and I didn't like just like completely stop doing exercise at all. I just started dabbling a little bit.

And so that, I think that word describes what I'm experiencing. It's perfect. It's perfect. It's really perfect. Eric is who I want to be. Okay, Paula, you're next. My word that I came up with is committed. Yeah. And for several reasons. A, we got married. I committed myself and my life to Eric for the rest of our lives. Oh my God. That is, why is that so? sweet. That's making me cry. And B, I feel like there were, maybe not as much externally,

but internally in our household and my training in my life, where I've gone off the rails a little bit this year of wondering if I want to do this, wondering if, like, where my goals were for the year and for the next coming years and et cetera. But despite all of that, I did remain committed to the racing and the training. And I don't give a sh** about how it appeared from the outside. But after all of the things that went on, I did finish the year in New Zealand. I had a really respectable triathlon season.

And I didn't pull the plug on anything. And, Paul, if you don't want this to go out, that's fine. I can take it out. But I think podcast listeners can probably tell that you have a wide range of emotions that you experience. And with racing and training, sometimes you're on a high and sometimes you're at a low and you wear it on your sleeve. Sometimes that comes during the podcast, but I know that you have had some real highs and lows this year. And I think committed is such a good word for you because you still did it. You did the training. You did the racing. You did well in the face of internal turmoil.

Yeah. It's hard. I didn't miss a single training session this entire year. I never didn't. I didn't never go not go to the pool or. And you were not always psyched for it. I know that. Like you, a lot of that was hard. A lot of that was in spite of what you wanted to do. You went out there and did it.

It's actually quite easy relatively when things are, when everything's going smoothly to go to the pool, to go on the bike ride, to start the intervals, all that stuff because it feels good and yesterday felt good and you have that fresh memory. And when it is not that case, it's a lot harder.

Paula, when you look back at that, that when you're doing all these, sessions and this racing when it wasn't your number one favorite thing to do all the time. Is there something that you could look back on and think that really helped you do that? I'm trying to think of how a listener who experiences this, what maybe they can try to practice. I think when this thing, this was always happening, or when this was happening to me throughout the year, I had to come back to would I rather be doing something else?

I think I truly realize that I am very grateful for what we do. And if I put myself in a situation where I was doing a different job or not doing the sport, not go into this race, not going out to train, I didn't like that idea better necessarily. So it just took a little bit of self-reflection. And to be honest, although the year was long and challenging in a lot of ways, I've finished this year. and then with all the things that are on the plate for options for next year, I truly feel excited about 2025 from a racing perspective. And I think that there was part of me in the middle of the year that thought that this could be my last year. Like maybe at the end of 2024, I'm just going to be so done with it.

But now that the year is over, thinking about next year is a little bit exciting to me and thinking about doing my first Iron Man and all of the things that might come with next year that aren't set in stone yet but those things are they make me want to be better and I think I'm reflecting back and thinking like

I had a pretty good year despite not everything going well and despite maybe not doing my absolute best in every single aspect as I could if I was committed like Taylor Nib seems to be

and like you know how I was 10 years ago in the sport I don't know I started thinking about this a lot as I read all these slow twitch mean comments. They were like, I live this like cushy life

and I'm not committed in my training and I'm like, how does it appear that way from the outside? Like people don't actually know. Because we post about our life and most pro-tra athletes

just want to post when they had a good workout. So like brace yourselves everybody thinks to slow Twitch we're only posting pictures of Paula crying on the treadmill and on the kicker. No more bike rides outside.

No more coffee. No more dog. Cutting out all out. Yeah, it truly is a a byproduct of sharing a lot and literally sharing something every week we talk to you guys for an hour or more that's insane. No one else is doing that. No other

pro athletes is doing that. So yeah, you see like the good and the bad and the ugly and the highs and the lows and the I'm going off topic here but it's great. We love off topic. But yeah, I would say this year is committed and I have a good word for next year too, but we're going to hear yours Nick right now. Your word for 2025, 2024. Yeah, my word for 2024 is

crucible. Do you know what a crucible is? No, but it reminds me of Jesus. I think it might... That would be crucifix. It's the same prefix. I don't mean it to me. Even though Baby Jesus brought me gifts as a child, I am not religious, so this is not a religious thing.

Okay, explain. So a crucible, it can be like a mechanical thing where it's like you melt metal inside of it to create new metal. But it's a situation of severe trial or in which different elements interact leading to the creation of something new.

So I, you know, just this year was, you know, you guys know this and I feel like if you're somewhat observant podcast listener, you know, this was a very hard year for me just because of some personal stuff. And even though it was uncomfortable and painful for most of it, I think and I hope that

I will end up a much more well-rounded version of myself that I can be more proud of in the future because of it. I think it has helped me pinpoint certain areas of weakness and parts about myself that I'm not happy with and have shined the light on them and allowed me to work on them in a much more concerted way than if I had continued to trot along kind of in somewhat apathy towards them. Love it. Well said, dude, and a great word too.

Thank you. Okay, 2025. Eric, do you have a word for 2025? I was just going to go with exploratory. That's like divergent, but taking it to the next level. Like, kind of embracing it. And not just, oh, we're changing course. We're locking in on this new course,

but don't know exactly what it's going to reveal, but I'm going to go find out. I love that. I love that. It's exciting. And it's so cool that you're in a, it's a privilege to be able to do that, right? To explore more and not just take care of those things that you need to have to survive.

100%. I feel like I've worked my ass off for a very, very long time to get to where I'm at, where we are at in the sport and sports in general. And we by no means are like, you know, we watch the Sean White documentary. We're not millionaires. We're not just like can do whatever we want for the rest of our lives. But I think I have a good sponsors that are interested in what I'm interested in. And I have the ability to tell a story around things that I'm excited about.

And I want to like, I guess, do justice to that privilege and explore it. So yeah, I'm freaking psyched. I love it. I love it. Can you go next, Nick? I'm still thinking about my mom. Okay. Okay, great. Yeah, my 2025 word is kind of also an evolution of my 2024 word, and it is tenacity.

And for those who don't know what tenacious means, tenacity comes from tenacious. It is kind of to show strength and resilience in the presence of adversity. And so I'm sure 2025 will have more adversity for me, and I'll kind of still have some internal demons, but I am committed to continue to work and push forward and be better and self-reflect in the way I interact with the rest of the world. So tenacity is my word. Love it. Mine is Iron Man.

I'm going to be an Iron Man. Hey, don't feed the trolls. Don't feed the trolls. Oh, my God. No, I'm not kidding, you guys. I want to do an Iron Man. No, I know. I can sense it. I'm not going to start telling you Tony Stark.

Tanya Stark is what I'm going to start calling you. I want to do an Iron Man. I think I'm going to be good at it. And I'm not going to try to win Kona. I'm just going to try to win an Iron Man. I'll tell you about one later. That's awesome. Guys,

guys listening, if she's serious, the content that you are about to receive, you are not ready for. Oh, man. It's going to be fire. I mean, Nick, to be fair, like I think I can win. I think this was a bit of the problem this year. I didn't go into every race thinking I could win this race.

The T-100 does that effect on you. Yeah, yeah, of course. But I went into every 70.3 thinking I could win this race. And I certainly will go into my first Iron Man thinking I can win this race. Otherwise, what's the point? Well, I mean, for you, that's how you feel. That's how you race. That's how you operate.

It's winning is the only option. That's great. That's not the way I operate. If it's the one that gets you out of bed and on the bike and doing the intervals and riding the snow and all that. Yeah. Oh, speaking to riding in the snow. We started watching Ted King. It's called, I think, it's called Return of the King. Nice. It's about

his 24 season. And I'm pretty sure Ansel, Ansel Dickie, and we're pretty into it. Oh, very nice. You're not sure if Ansel did it? I can only assume, but I don't want it, just in case he didn't, but I'm 99% sure. Yeah. Filmed beautifully and kind of about him like prepping for the year. And he did a very interesting thing in that

he was sort of in gravel in this position of like he was like sort of retired from pro on road racing and did gravel just to like you know to see out the rest of his career like pre retirement and then it started getting real fast and he had this last moment of man I'm in this privileged position where I have sponsors and I have the support and I could go ride my bike for seven hours every day I'm giving it one more go and I'm going to go as hard as I can this season and see where it gets me in I don't I feel a bit like that too, although not necessarily the one more go thing. I don't necessarily think this is my last year in the sport. But hearing that was cool because I'm like, yeah, I have the backing of all these dream sponsors.

Most people would only dream of having like the people supporting us that we have supporting us. So use that and go all in and try to do something different this year. No, just like copy and paste last season. Let's do a fun thing and say the same with Eric, like not just triathlon. like going and doing more ultra running or whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah. Love it.

Guys, that was great. And I think if you're on the app, if you're on the TTL app, we'll start a little thread where you can put in your own two words as well. Oh, heck yeah. Oh, good idea, Nick. Can't wait to read those. Because honestly, Nick only gave us like 10 minutes to think about this, but I think I could think of better things if I had more time. I took some time to think about mine for sure. Yeah, sorry, I kind of threw that on you guys.

No, no apologies. This was a great segment. Next question here, that was technically a question. Next question here is from Christopher. First time listener, first time caller. Sorry, long time listener, first time caller. Quick question, how do I ride hills? When do I sit up, stand up, drop from big ring to small ring, drop to easier gears? I'm terrible at hills.

And other than just getting stronger, what is the best way technically or mechanically to be better? Love what y'all do for the community inside and outside triathlon. Thanks, Christopher. Wow. All right. Lots to unpack there. Yep. Okay. So how should we break this down? Should we break it down by like you're approaching the hill? Like mechanically. For me, the first thing that jumped out just like with a mechanic type brain is that you do not want to wait to shift into the small ring until you absolutely have to. Do it a little bit preemptively so that you can shift not under maximum load and not drop your chain. That would be my number one tip of the shifting component.

That's nothing that gives away amateur hill rider like and then chain drop and balls to top tube and potentially face on the ground. Brutal. Yeah, that's a good one. I was thinking about when you do kind of, if you're climbing and you're planning to get out of the saddle for 15 to 30 seconds, whatever it is,

do you do anything with your gearing moments before doing that. Do you keep it the same? Probably downshift right before I get out of the saddle, generally, because your RPM is going to be lower when you get out of the saddle than when you're in the saddle, unless you've just let your RPM drop too low. Yeah, I always give you two clicks, two clicks, and then I stand up. As a rule?

That's how you know Nick's going to attack. Because this freaking 2012, D.I.2 is like, no. You know what's funny is I brought my bike in, because I was telling Eric that I, like my rear brake just lost hydraulic pressure and I brought into the bike shop and the bike shop sent me a text. They're like, dude, we need to like, we're getting up to the limit of what this group set can be like repaired over and over again. Like you might want to think about just getting a new group set.

So now I'm toying with that idea and the exorbitant cost. Coming back. Coming back to gift. That's a better gift than the boots. Give me a 20, 25 SRAM red group set. That's a great gift. I mean Ricardo would do it

She would do it No I'm not going to ask my sweet sweet parents They've done enough But yeah So I'm now have to consider Replacing the entire Like a caliper system Of my rear brake apparently

Just the rear caliper Just well the caliper And then obviously the pistons That go with it And then you have to do a break bleed for it So I might have an extra caliper I might have an extra chamono caliper laying around

Yeah Really Speaking of things laying around. Well, Eric and I were sick this week. We went into the attic and we repopulated the garage sale. I about passed out on the way

up the stairs into the attic. Nice. So if anyone remembers, I did a garage sale about three months ago where we sold a lot of our wetsuits, Castelli gear, shoes, you name it. I sold it.

Wow, that's the tagline. TTR garage sales. You name it? I sold it. I sold it. And, uh, Things will begin shipping in January, but if you want to go take a candor. Things will begin shipping in January? This is a legitimate.

We are doing delayed Christmas on account of COVID. Wow, I love it. Yeah, what I'm saying is like... But the spreadsheet is live, yeah? The spreadsheet is always live. It's always live. Like, I was putting the wetsuits in, and people were actually claiming them. And I hadn't even announced the garage that it was back on yet. They're on the notification system.

They must be. It's actually crazy. I think you get notifications. I don't think so, frankly. We just like check it every day. Changes an Excel spreadsheet. Anyway, we put some bikes up there. The prices are up for negotiation on the bikes, but... $5 here or there.

I mean, unless multiple people put their name down, then... Yeah, yeah, exactly. Whatever. But I'm selling things... Like, the bikes, like my very beautiful tarmac, baby blue, stuff like that. So I'm not going to say it's like the biggest bargain ever for the bikes. We got some bargains on there. We dug some argons out that are still in...

Mint. Nice. Minch condition, but you've got to be willing to ride a rim break. Well, we have a couple of not rim brakes too. Also, also my hot take is, are they TT bikes or are they road bikes? We got a rim bike. RIMBikes do not need disc brakes. That's my hot take for the week.

I honestly think disc brakes are, they're just kind of like an arrow liability. And if you don't, well, especially if you ride in California, you don't need disc brakes. No, there's no rain. It's fine. I'm just getting a little wind of Wayne. Wittwain. Paula, where can people find the link? I'll post the link on a TTL story.

You don't want me to put it in the podcast notes? Yeah, put it in the podcast notes, sure. Okay, great. And the way that the garage sale works on Google drives is if you want a thing, you put your email in the last column, and I'll get in touch with you with further instruction. Where to leave the briefcase of non-conceptive. And this is an honor system. Do not go in and delete someone else's email if you want a thing. Obviously.

That is so uncool. That's so unco. But you could do it if you wanted. We will find you and we'll make sure that the podcast is impossible for you to listen to ever again. Okay, back to the topic at hand here, which is climbing on a bike. Is there something I thought of is how there's more of the pedal stroke that is available to put out power to when you are climbing compared to when you're on flats? Because of kind of gravity, kind of exerting downward force on the bike. Well, because of that, a lot of people, myself included,

are able to put out more power when climbing compared to on the flats. And I think that's good. For example, in a race, say your goal is holding 200 watts for 70.3. You're not riding 200 watts on the ups, on the downs, on the flats. You're not a robot. You're not riding Erg mode on Swift. I think it's good to go over the watts on a climb, like 250. Oh, for sure.

And then 150 on a descent. I mean, it's just riding a bike. It's like the feeling nature of riding it. Like, what do you say? say things like, oh, I double-click down two times before every time I stand up. I think that there has to be a little bit more flow to it. Of course. It's just something I've noticed that I do.

It's not a rule I set for myself, but I've just noticed like two seems to be about, right. But what you're saying, Paula... And one and two and stand. This is not as a big class. Yeah. But what you're saying about, Paul, about like putting more power out when you climb versus when you descend, that's not just a factor of being able to do that. Also because you're getting more bang for your buck when you put more power out when you climb.

Because putting power out when you descend, you're fighting even more against wind resistance. And the more you're climbing, the less wind resistance is a thing. That's why I love climbing so much. Of course. Of course. Like you put out 300 watts, you're growing so fast uphill. Yeah. You're getting QOMs.

Eric, you were giving me kind of like an inquisitive face about the climbing thing. And the way it was described to me once that really made a click was imagine that you're trying to exert as much force as possible against a big ball, like a human height ball. If that ball were 100 pounds, there's much more of that full push that you can exert because maybe it's going to move it,

it's going to take you three seconds to get through the full range of motion of your arms pushing against it. But if the ball only weighed like three pounds, you're not going to be able to get, like a lot of that, you're not going to be able to push against it because you've already kind of pushed the ball forward.

And when you're climbing, it's kind of like, the bike is kind of pushing the hill against you, you have a little bit more in your pedal stroke to be able to exert that power out. So it's got nothing to do with the incline. You're just saying that because there's some built-in resistance, you can push harder. So a headwind would have the exact same effect. Exactly. Yep. Yep. So it's really just, if you're not going as hard on the flats as you are when you're climbing, you're just mentally weak because you can create your own resistance by going harder. Okay, guys, next question. Kind of. Yeah, kind of. Okay. Next one here.

Paula, congratulations on your impressive race in Tapo. Topa. Sorry, God. Question for both of you. Did you have homestays, which didn't work out? How did you resolve them? Or is there some pre-screening for both parties to ensure a good match? Have a great time relaxing with your family. I hope Flynn gets a special squeaky for Christmas.

Pam, is, is Flynn getting a special squeaky for Christmas? I mean... We're not doing presents over here. Christmas with the cranks. He gets a special toy once a week, so there's a good chance that No compression boots first Flynn. No. He'll get something special for sure.

That's a great question. We don't do a lot of homestays. Not lately. Back in the day we did a lot. Yeah. But I would say that like the two that come to mind recently are when we were in Glasgow for the Time Trial World Championships and we had a time after before our next race. And then

this year in Zurich before the Time Trial World Championships, we stayed. with a family. And I might, it might shock the family when I'm like, yes, we'll take you up on it. Because maybe they haven't actually sent us that much information or a picture or whatever. I'm very trusting in this way. And my backup plan is always, well, we can just go get a hotel if we need to. But I think I've always had great experiences that have been so formative in a lot of ways, just not only in that week or two we're staying with them, but like they become. friends for after the fact too and connections all over the world. So for the most part, our home state situations have been amazing. Yeah, I would say it's like 20% about whatever money

it would be saving and 80% about local knowledge, companionship, like they should tell you when to go to the pool, where the pool is, what the good bike routes are, et cetera, et cetera. And especially when you're going to be some, like we were in Zurich for 10 days or you were there for even a little bit longer. It was, God, it was so nice to not just be like

doing an elevator and out of a hotel room and just like each day being like, God, I hope this road won't kill me. Yeah, we had like our homestay

people, we were like hanging out with our kids and we would sit for dinner with them. Like it was such a nice, we were sick, unfortunately, but it was such a nice.

Well, their kids were sick too, so it was all good. We had like that awful stomach. Oh yeah. Our sickness was not contagious. Yeah. But,

um, I would say that if I was going to a big race, like a world championship or some important event, I might not take that risk just because you never know how much they're going to talk to you

and not maybe give you your own space that you need before an event. But if you're there for training or if you know them already, then it's completely fine. Yeah. We've had the same homestay for St. Anthony's now for like five years.

And that's honestly half the reason that I go back to St. Anthony's every year. I say, well, I got to go say hi to Chuck and Gail and see Gabby the dog and just the whole thing. And it feels like I'm almost going to like my aunt and uncle or my grandma and grandpa's house and reconnecting with them. And then also you race. On the flip side of that, we have, I don't know how many we've had, but one homestay experience in particular stands out in my mind as a fairly nightmare experience where the person wasn't even there. Fortunately, we showed up to their house. There was some sort of a situation with animals that were not super well trained,

and the house had quite the smell that we couldn't quite handle. And so we ended up getting a hotel room, which was financially extremely stressful at that point in our career. This was in the day where we did a homestay because it was... Necessity. Yeah, because we didn't... I've never heard the story. Well, we don't want to make anybody feel bad in case they listen to the podcast now. And we tried to just pretend that it didn't happen. But we've had a couple. I would say I can think of that one as the worst one. And then there's another one I've had.

It was a similar situation where I actually had no option to change. But it was uncomfortable. Not all asleep and stuff. That's the risk that you go up against. Of course. Life of a divergent, you know? Yeah. I mean, you know, you got a risk a little bit.

But that's a, yeah, I don't know. It's a great problem. it's a great thing to take advantage of, but it is always great if somebody is, you know, like, recommended by another person as a friend. And, you know, ideally they tell you that they have a mansion in the nicest part of time.

You know, and a, you know, a BMW that you can borrow if you need. Yeah. Ideally, like a, you know, a nanny. We're not entitled at all. We're not entitled at all. Yeah, I don't know where people get that. That actually has not happened.

But that would be awesome. That would be winning the lottery of homestays for sure. Actually, if the people, People tell me, like, you'll have your own bedroom and bathroom and your own space. That's usually enough to be like, that's all I need. Yeah. Right. You mean like not sharing the bed with them?

Not sharing a bathroom. I mean... Like Futong is going to probably not fly, you know, something like that. But yeah, separate bedroom is just, that's good. Is there our criteria? In case anyone wants to host us. Okay, next question here. This is from Alice.

Hi, TTR crew. here from Northumberland, England here. And also she says, love your pronunciations of UK places, names. Northumberland, I feel like it could be pronounced Northumberland or some of those places in England. Like, it could be like numb nuts, you know? Like, you never know. There's some of those, like, Gloucester is Gloucester.

It's so confusing. Right. That's true. I'm working my way through the episodes from day one to present, current until February 2023. Wow, good work. While keeping up with the new releases and haven't ever done a triathlon. but now feel educated enough to tackle one in 2025. So were you planning on doing a triathlon?

I have a question for you, ma'am. Yeah, well, you'll see here, she's at least training for one of the sports. Okay. Keen to hear from Nick, not Paula and Eric, as you are too cool, and you'll see what she means here. If he has any hacks for getting accurate records of pool swim workouts via a watch, I wear a garment and even have a specific swim garment, but I never get an accurate at distance count. There are always several laps missing, sometimes up to 10 to 15 missing laps over 3 to 4K, even though I'm always doing freestyle with no drills. I've researched online and the

advice is to ensure that you have a long underwater push-off as that's when the watch clocks that you are on a new lap. But this doesn't seem to make a difference. Are all watches the same when it comes to this or is there a brand that does it better? Or any other tips? Thanks and let me know if you ever need a place to stay on the beautiful numb nuts coast, Alice. There we go. Do you have a guest house? Do we get our own bathroom? Is there a B.M. What time is dinner?

And ready to go. This dinner. Okay, so, first of all, do you guys know how sports watches track laps in a pool? Obviously not. Right. So I think a lot of people don't know this. It does not use GPS at all. It only uses the accelerometer and maybe a gyroscope.

but accelerometer in the watch. I kind of figured it would be some sort of an interpretation of you doing a flip turn, like just chaos. That's it. That's it. So I'll speak for the watch

that I have, which is the Garmin Phoenix, which has such bad burn in on the screen that it's like hard to read sometimes in certain screens. So it's about time for a new watch, I think. But it does not use GPS when you are swimming.

It uses the accelerometer and it can figure out if you're doing breast truerrefer. backstroke, backstroke, fly, or freestyle. Just because of the kind of the the kind of motion that is sensing. What about kick? So that is the thing.

And she addressed this here, but I'm going to talk about this for people who may not know this at all because she's already done some research here. And I think I think I know what's going wrong here. But for kick, it cannot accurately predict how much you're swimming. So for kick, a lot of sports watches,

Garmin, one of them, being one of them, you can put it into drill mode. When you put it into drill mode, it's very easy. You swim whatever you swim, and then at the end, it asks you how far you went. So it cannot predict if you're doing drills. It cannot predict that. So even if you're doing like a one-arm drill or like ketchup drill is fine. How hard is it to put it into drill mode?

Like how many buttons? One. Oh, that's nice. Okay. Yeah. You just scroll for me. You scroll up and then you start as if you're starting a regular thing. Okay.

Yeah, it's real easy. and then for for me I don't have it in like auto start and stop so I am literally hitting the lap button between each time each rep whether it's a 100 or a 50 or a 400 yeah we know you guys know but for listeners we have video documentation

yeah it's embarrassing but you could presumably keep it in auto mode where it feels when you push off the wall and it feels when you stop okay how are the form goggles I was gonna that was going to be my answer to this question I think form goggles are more accurate. So I have not, I think I've maybe used the form goggles in the pool once,

but I, before now you have to pay up subscription just to use them at all. A great gift. Yeah. A great gift. Yeah, subscription. Do you have a pair currently? I have a pair, but I don't use them because I'd have to be paying monthly for them and I only use them for open water swims.

Well, somebody has been reaching our test at form. We should ask them if we can get you just a free subscription for the year. so you can, at least for next week, so you can report back on this. I had a subscription through Dennis for a whole two years or something, but then Dennis left the company. We'll make some calls.

Make some calls. No, I mean, I don't think you need to go buy an expensive thing to solve this problem, but I do think this form goggles do a better job of tracking. Yeah, if she's got a garment-specific just for swimming, so like some goggles for, you know, if that's the goal.

I think there has to be either some error in the watch or user error because I would say in a hundred swims I will have one or two missed lengths of the pool like overall.

Did you say error in the watch or air? Error, error. Error, yeah, error. I think there might be something like mechanically wrong with the watch potentially because and I doubt that. I think what's happening here with Alice is I think she's doing something that I know a lot of people do with their watches which is she doesn't have it in auto pause

mode and is just not pausing it. Is getting to the wall and like whatever, talking for a second. And there's some confusion with what she's doing with her wrist that is reading as a lap or not. I think that is what's going on here as the issue. Because mine has been, every watch I've owned, which is now three different watches, have read perfectly accurately in the pool. Manual stopping and starting. Manual stopping and starting.

For me, when I notice when I do the auto stop and start, it actually isn't the time, The length is right, but the timing is not right. It adds like two to three seconds each time. So you just got to weigh like how much you care about it being laser accurate versus touching your wrist every time you get to the wall. Exactly. Exactly. Or you can go to the pool with your swim market on a piece of paper or in your brain and know how many meters it is and do the whole set and then you know. I mean, yes.

But I like to know how fast was that 100, you know? And people look at the clock for that and have the data. You guys are after the data. Oh, and do the training peaks. I looking back at four years ago, I'm like, see how freaking slow I was then? I'm on board with the watch wearing for the data. I get that for sure. Next question here is from Alex.

Not Alice. Hi, Paul, Eric, and Nick. I wanted to wish you a happy offseason. Thank you for helping to make us really feel part of the community, family, and your lives. It means the world, especially with a busy schedule and no friends interested in triathlon. Rough. Okay. Sorry, Alex.

I'm looking to improve my run of the 70.3 distance. but will also like to get faster in shorter segments and other races. Will altering portions of my training to improve my 5K, 10K time have a benefit on my overall half marathon time? How did your training compare when you were more focused on short course to what you do now? Thanks again. I will always listen along through the offseason and be cheering you all on when it starts up again. Thank you, Alex. Yeah, we do have somewhat of a downturn for the offseason and listenership, and then it picks back up in the new year.

So thank you, Alex, for sticking through. Oh, that's interesting. I think there's just like a downturn in people. I mean, our YouTube goes down greatly in like December, January as well. People are spending time with family. Yeah, that's my hope. Yeah. But I don't know, the first thing of my head is like,

this is like Lionel's entire YouTube channel in like 2019, I believe. He was doing like 5Ks first and 10 case and then half a marathon. Yeah, because like T100 is coming. You know, if I want to win Vegas or, I mean, Daytona, the time. But I would say certainly. And that's why you see so many athletes that started off in IT racing, almost everybody. It's like actually crazy. If you go watch an IT race from like 2001, how they're like, oh, Craig Alexander and, you know, Danielle Arif. And then they all ended up an Ironman really fast. But they started out with this great- Maybe not 2001, but yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I just threw out a random year. Start off with this speed and then basically try to take that speed and you've got that mechanical know-how and neuromuscular ability to like carry it a little bit longer. And it's fun. Like Paula goes and does in trains for UCI worlds and it's a 30K and she gets top 20 in the world. And then all of a sudden you go to 70.3 and that power, it does not seem like as big of a deal. And you might have a little bit of extra that you can use to like elevate and get up a hill faster cover a gap or like whatever.

The question is, is a training for short better for long? Are there benefits? Are there ways that you can do it smarter? Yeah, I think when I train for UCI 30K races, first of all, physiologically, I'm much better at 30K than 90K. Like if you extrapolate my watts that I do for 30K to a 90K, I should be able to ride much better in a 70.3 than I actually end up riding. It's kind of, it's kind of frustrating. because I would say in the 30K distance or like in a UCI time trial event, I am one of the best people in the world at it. But I would not say. You don't have to be the one to say it.

It is official. I would not say. But it doesn't translate that well over to the 90K distance. But when I am training for the TT specifically, my triathlon bike performances do improve. So around the time, like Abiza that was two weeks after World Championship for TT, I had one of my best 70.3 rides or 80K rides for the T-100. So I think it really does help so much to kind of tap into that top end a little bit. And then when you do come back down 50 watts or whatever it is,

that feels so much easier like you could hold it for a long time, which you have to do for a 70.3 or an Iron Man. So yeah, the speedwork is, like Eric said, fun. I think satisfying. I love going harder for shorter amounts of time. And it definitely makes you better at long stuff. Yeah, I think generally people periodize it a little bit. So if you have a whatever, a half marathon that you want to do in July, like, yeah, for sure.

In April, go try to run the fastest 5K you can and then switch over a little bit into the stuff that you need to do for that fast. half marathon rather than just like I'm going to train as a half marathon specific athlete from January until July. So would you say speed work makes the dream work? No, but okay. Certainly helps the dream work. Okay. Next question here is from Nate. I like to shop the used marketplace for the wants upgrades for my bike. I've been looking at used disc wheels and a tubular zip is significantly less expensive than a clincher. I understand my race pretty much over if I flat, but would it be a bad choice to take advantage of the cost savings? I only race for fun at this point, a few times a year locally, so a DNF is not the end of the world.

Would Sealand offer a little extra protection with a tubular? On another note, I raced Kona this year, and the TTL vibes were strong. I want to go back to spectate, so Paula definitely needs to race it someday. Happy holidays, Nate. That's awesome. Wait, he raced Kona, but he's doing the backyard races? Or maybe he said he raced Kona. Yeah, yeah, he did. Tubilers are so fast. Yeah, they are, honestly, if I was buying bicycle stuff with my own hard-earned money, like even, I mean, tubulars would be so tempting.

They are just as fast as tubeless. They don't pinch flat. If you carry a can of sealant, like a pit stop or whatever, you can just jam that in there and just got as good of a chance of sealing as if you're trying to hit a tube, with the CO2, almost. I mean, there's a high chance of if you get like a catastrophic level flat on any wheel system, your day could be over. I would, I mean, you're just completely like not talking about the extreme inconvenience

of gluing a tubular onto there, though, right? Take it to the bike shop. You don't have to do that? I kind of enjoyed doing it, but you don't have to. You can take it to a bike shop. They'll still do it. Bike shops will still glue a tubular. on. I don't see why I know it. Like at least, I mean, the guys that worked in the bike shop,

and when I worked in the bike shop, they kind of liked it. They would put on some music and just like get a little bit high off of the glue as they're gluing tires all afternoon. And like, don't mess with me. This is like the simplest like wax on wax off freaking, you know, zen activity. So if you put a tubular on a wheel, it'll last the whole season? It just depends how much you race on it. Well, if he's racing on it three or four times. Yeah. And then would it last into the next season or should you glue a new tube on? Oh, I think it could do two years. I think you could do two years. I would look at it like you look at any tire and see if it's been flattened off at all in the center of the tread. Does the glue wear down?

No. All right. And do tubular tires cost significantly more than clinters or tubeless tires? I mean, you get a tube and a tire in one thing. So at one point in time, I think they're kind of similar. If you get like a nice tubular or a nice like racing, that's a good question. We should check. But I don't think it's wildly different. I'm just thinking like at what point does the cost eclipse itself. But maybe never. The only issue now might just be that there are less. Maybe I should buy one. Yeah, I don't mean for sure. I don't, I think the issue now might be that there are less companies making tubulars potentially. But they're even still, I think UCI Pro teams that are still secretly writing tubulars. Maybe even is like late as one year ago. Because they're freaking, they're so skittish and afraid of change and tubulars. Of course.

Of course. And they're not slower. Right. Right. Well, there you go, Nate. Approved. Go ahead. And then that was going to be the last question, but there is a last little fun one, which I actually

don't even know what they're talking about, but I assume you guys know what they're talking about. Well, and this holiday episode on this one. This is from Nathaniel. I'll keep it short to hopefully make it to the pod cut. What's your take on the googly eyes in Bend? Have you seen them around and do they make you laugh? do you think, how dare someone do that? Thanks, Nathaniel. Can you explain to me what this is?

Yeah, I'll explain. This has become national news. It started popping up on like Conan O'Brien, not Kona, but whoever does like that sort of a thing now. Yeah, so basically all over, all over Bend, we have roundabouts. And in the middle of the roundabouts are structures like horses, chickens, art, general plants. And someone has been going around and putting Google, eyes like you buy it a craft store. Big ones on the sculptures. Like six inches across. I mean, maybe not that big, but like big enough to be to scale with the animal structure.

You go up to the roundabout and the horse has eyes now. Everybody Google this right now. It'll pop up immediately. And the chicken has eyes. And it is hilarious. We love it. I think it's so funny, but there's this big uproar that it's like ruining the sculptures or something. Oh, come on.

Oh my God, they're so good. The one of the orb. Oh, my God, the deer? Yeah, you're driving to the pool and you're like, you're cracking up in your car. This is great for city morale. So is someone going around and take it? Like, is the city taking them down? Am I seen.

Vigilante is putting them back up. Yeah, some freaking curmudgeon grinch is angry. I love it. And it's not like every single roundabout. There's like got to be three or four maximum that are, you know, candidates. For Googling eyes. People are putting them on everything, even the circle and stuff. Well, that's probably because people started getting all upset about it.

And now we're getting a reaction. Let's push harder. Of course. Yeah, it's quite funny. I mean, if this is the main problem and Ben, then. Exactly. We're safe. We have no actual problems here.

There you go. Well, I mean, that sounds very entitled and privileged. No, I think acknowledging the fact that Googly eyes is the, as news is definitely, definitely good and acknowledging your privilege. That's good. I'm very self-conscious now if you haven't noticed. I'm not bragging about it. I'm definitely not saying it's a good thing.

Yes, I agree. I agree. Well, that's that. That's that, guys. I hope everyone had such a wonderful Christmas and that you have such a wonderful New Year's, a safe New Year's. Careful with those fireworks.

Fireworks. We're trying to convince Nick to fly here after New York, right after New Year's, to record our 150th episode. I think it would be our 149th. It would be It would be both because you would be here for a week. What about the pro-Chinese?

For two weeks. Also, remember last year on our 100th episode, listeners, if you've been devoted for that long, you might remember we did, we called people so they could ask questions. Yeah. We need to do that again. That was so fun.

I want to make that. I wish there was an easy way to make that a regular, we could make it a regular thing. It's not hard. How did we get people to submit their phone numbers? I forget. It was a, it was an Instagram. question or something. Yeah, and then the ones that we chose, we reached out and said,

what's your phone number? And we gave them like 15 minutes. We didn't give them any notice. We just called them. Yeah. Yeah. It was like radio days back in the day when like Power 92 would call up a random person and tell them that they won something for the day. And it was like true reaction. You're on the radio. Yeah. I was surprised at how well people kind of kept it together and just had a normal conversation. You know, was it Lindy Kent that told us in Vegas that she missed the call and she was devastated for like a month. But we did try calling back a couple of people. Anyway, let's do that again.

That was so fun. That was fun. That was fun. Great. Okay. Well, thank you guys so much for listening this whole year. It has been so much fun. And also a big shout out to our podcast supporters. This would not happen without you.

And if you're on the fence about it, we would really appreciate your support. Yeah. And also thanks to Freaks of Nature, of course, for being a time. title sponsor of the podcast. I just want to say, because Paula's brought up that thing. Nick spends an outrageous amount of time on this podcast. I personally show up. Paula curates questions.

Nick spends an outrageous amount of time making sure that this audio sounds fantastic. He has gone to school. He's a professional and he deserves to be compensated for it. And we just want to make sure that Nick doesn't go off and try to win too many more Grammys and leave the podcast, etc. So we got to take care of him. Thank you guys. I appreciate that.

All right. Thanks for listening, everybody. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. And we'll shout out with you in 2025. Later. Bye.